The Dark Side of the Sun
by Xerios
Summary: Movieverse Ch.14 Posted : Arad steals Sam's fries, Kate annoys the Twins, Blitz arrives early, and things explode.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer : Do not own Transformers in any way shape or form, including toys. Yep, that's right, I have none of the toys and it saddens me greatly.

Note : A few things to point out. This is my first time ever writing anything for Transformers, so I apologize if I am unable to pull it off. I chose the movie-verse for reasons that should be relatively obvious although I probably will incorporate a few things from the original series if I can get my friend ssjjosh to explain them in terms I can comprehend. Because, dear readers, although I used to watch the original series, it has been a rather long, long, long time. And 80's child that I am, I have a poor memory span due to the advent of video games. This particular story was thought up by me and my friend Kate-chan, thus we feature in it as characters. One thing I was not completely sure on at the end of the movie was Bumblebee's ability to speak, and ssjjosh has informed me that, while he can talk normally, its incredibly painful to do so, thus he still uses the radio in this story. Also, a warning for those of you looking for a purely Transformers fic - This is a crossover. I'm not telling you with what, because it'll be clear by at least chapter four. The title was borrowed off a Terry Pratchett novel and was the only one in my long list of potentials that sounded appropriate.

Parenthesis - Phone

Italics - Music

Song Credits : Here We Go by NSync, Dashboard by Modest Mouse

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter One

It was supposed to be summer vacation, a time for doing things not normally approved of when school's in session, but family tradition over-ruled even the best laid plans. This year the Witwicky's had packed their bags and driven all the way down to Florida for some kind of family reunion type deal. The only comfort Sam could find in the whole thing was that his dad had granted him permission to follow the family minivan in his own car. The three day drive from the immensely boring town of Tranquility to the even more boring town of Weeki Wachee was made less tedious with someone other than his parents to talk to.

Sometimes it felt weird to think on the point that his best friend was a Camaro, but then again, his car wasn't exactly a real car.

For a little longer than the past two months, the Autobot known as Bumblebee had been pretending to be his car, although there had been a little bit of an awkward moment trying to explain how the '74 Camaro his dad had originally bought him had managed to turn into a brand new '09 GTO. It was Mikaela who saved him the trouble by claiming that the original car had been totaled on accident by the military. To apologize for it and the misunderstandings from being literally kidnapped by those idiots from Sector Seven, they'd given him a new one. His parents had been slightly miffed at being 'bought out' but eventually their minds had settled around the idea and there was no more mention of it.

He'd spent the afternoons hanging out with Mikaela and the rest of the Autobots up at the lookout point, both of them intent on learning more about their new friends, as well as helping them adapt to life on Earth. There were some things that, despite having downloaded most of the information on the internet, they were inherently bad at. Things like the difference between pets and regular wild animals.

Or how to separate fact from fiction and Wikipedia.

Things had been going pretty well until his dad got that invitation in the mail. Of course his mom had been thrilled at the chance of being able to get pictures of every distant relative twice removed in one place. So the bags had been packed and now here he was in the humid hell that was Florida, staring at the tepid canal behind his uncle's house in complete and utter boredom.

"This bites," he muttered, slapping away a mosquito that was buzzing by his ear. A half-baked plan of making a run for it was coursing through his head, but the sun was going down and his uncle could be heard up on the back porch preparing the grill. Even if he could get out to the driveway, there was no avoiding being spotted by the man's apparent three hundred-sixty degree vision.

It was like the guy had radar. Yesterday, he'd thought to maybe go for a drive out to the beach or something and no sooner had he taken three steps towards the front door had his uncle appeared, offering to take them all on a tour of the entire county. He'd spent the whole time in the stuffy strange smelling backseat of his uncle's SUV while the man pointed out things that no one in their right mind would consider tourist attractions.

Sam's thoughts were interrupted by his cell phone, the ring tone attuned to one of the latest rock songs that every radio station kept replaying. He pulled it out of his pocket, flipping it open to check the caller ID but instead of displaying the usual name and number lines the small screen remained blank.

"Hello?" he said into the receiver, holding it up to his ear.

((Sam, this is Optimus.))

"What the hell!?" Sam cried, nearly toppled off the dock into the surely alligator infested waters below. He recovered himself just in time, nervously glancing over his shoulder at his uncle, but thankfully the man's back was turned. Partially cupping his hand over his mouth and the bottom of the phone, he tried his best not to freak out at this latest development of weirdness. "How'd you do that? How'd you call my phone?"

((The wireless network assigned to your communication device is rather simple to connect to.))

"You hacked Verizon?" Sam cried, nearly forgetting to keep his voice down. "Okay, okay, just never mind that, why are you calling me?"

((We have detected an anomalous energy signature approximately forty-two kilometers south of your current position.))

"Uh-huh."

((The signal appears to be composed of the same energy as the Allspark.))

"What!?"

This time Sam did lose control of his whisper and his uncle did turn around, giving him a questioning look.

"Just my friend, got into a wreck," Sam called, covering the receiver as he stumbled off the dock. "Broke his leg."

His uncle nodded, satisfied by the answer, and went back to slathering barbecue sauce on what may or may not have been chicken. Sam returned his attention back to the phone, hurriedly jogging up the side yard towards the driveway, hoping against hope that the world would take the hint that this needed to be a private conversation.

"I thought you said there's only one!"

((There is only one Allspark.))

"And it's gone, it went poof along with Megatron, right?"

((Correct, however, this can not be ignored. The signal is of a significant strength, suggesting the energy in place is of a dangerous amount. If the Decepticons were to get a hold of it-))

"It would be bad, very bad," Sam finished, reaching the driveway. Bumblebee had popped open a door for him to climb in, apparently already informed of the situation. "Definitely not letting that hap-"

He paused, all sounds suddenly drowned out by the sudden rumble of an engine down the street. A violently red Chevy Silverado came thundering down the road, grinding to a halt before the neighboring house, horn honking erratically. A door slammed open and out ran a girl with dark brown hair and a fashion sense imported directly from Japan. She didn't glance at Sam or anything else, but geared her attention to the driver of the truck, vocal chords set at full blast.

"WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!!"

"There were old people hogging the lanes, it's not my fault!!" protested the driver. "And it's only five-thirty, we are not late!!"

"We are too!!"

"Are not!!"

The rest of the argument was drowned out by the crash of the passenger door falling shut and the renewed rumble of the truck's engine as it pulled a reversed three-point turn and peeled off down the street. Sam shook his head as it departed, then climbed in the Camaro without so much as a half glance back up at his uncle's house.

Tracking down mysterious energy signals beat sitting through another meal of bad barbeque any day.

((Sam? Are you there?))

"We're on our way," he muttered into phone as Bumblebee pulled out, almost rivaling the truck in engine noise and definitely beating it in the decibel level of the stereo.

_Here we go one more time, everybody's feeling fine, here we go now._

Sam's attention was drawn to the radio in horrified fascination. It had been years since he'd heard the terrible squawking that was NSync, and he hadn't expected to hear it coming from the Camaro's speakers.

"Where the hell did you find that song?"

_Ninety-three-three, FLZ!_

"Please, please, never play it again."

* * *

Rush hour was winding down and highway congestion was just clearing up when the truck came roaring down the exit to Busch Boulevard from I-75, catching the light just in the nick of time. One would have suspected that the driver of the heavily customized and slightly muddy Silverado was of the tough, out-doorsy, construction worker type. 

One look into the driver's seat dispelled any such notion.

In control of the thundering pick-up was a startlingly skinny young woman with a mop of dirty blonde hair and pair of purple rimmed glasses. Her face was furrowed in what was possibly anger at the dozens of slow-moving vehicles blocking her way down the street. The truck's only passenger appeared to be trying to calm the driver, but such attempts were as of this point futile, as nothing can calm a half-mad teenager whose only sustenance for the past five hours was a combination of mountain dew and rock candy.

Horn blaring, the truck passed several other cars whilst simultaneously breaking several laws. It was only favorable probability that there were no police cars within range, and even if there were, the girl probably wouldn't have stopped the vehicle until she'd reached her final destination.

"OUT OF MY LANE, OUT OF MY LANE!!" the girl shouted at the car that had just pulled in front of her, grudgingly applying the brakes to avoid running it over. "FUCKING FORD FOCUS!!"

"Quit yelling, he can't hear you with the windows up and you're hurting my ears!" cried the passenger, holding onto her armrest and trying desperately not to scream. "AYAAAAH!! MAZDA!!"

"I SEE IT, I SEE IT!!"

With screeching of tires, the truck executed a barely legal right-hand turn, almost colliding with the tail end of a lime green RX-7. The driver of the other car screamed obscenities, which were ignored as the pick-up took off, dancing in-between lanes with the grace of an elephant on crack. Traffic broke apart and waned severely as they reached the back end of North 30th Street, leaving nothing for the barreling tank-like automobile to crash into save a few mailboxes and a fence.

The truck ground to a halt outside of a metal warehouse, idling beneath a large tree as the driver pulled a map out of the glove compartment.

"What do you mean, you're lost?" the passenger shrieked, throwing her hands in the air. "You said you knew how to get there!! The movie starts in ten minutes!!"

"Kate, your tone of voice isn't helping."

"My tone of voice? MY TONE OF VOICE!? I PAID TWENTY BUCKS FOR THESE TICKETS, ARAD!!"

"I think we were supposed to take the exit for Fowler, or is it Fletcher?"

Thoroughly annoyed now, Kate leaned over and grabbed her friend by the collar of the girl's violently purple shirt.

"Figure it out now or so help me, I will burn every book you own," she hissed, eyes narrowing with every syllable.

Faced with a suitable threat, Arad tossed the map in the back seat. Rumbling back to life, the truck took off, going from zero to ninety in less time than as advertised on television.

Within three minutes they arrived at the parking lot of the Museum of Science and Industry, still managing to avoid the watchful eye of the police despite the non-existent skills of the driver. Parking took less than thirty seconds, as a suitable space opened up just as they pulled in, the nervous former occupant fleeing in terror at the site of such an angry looking vehicle.

Tickets in hand, Kate climbed out before the truck was even turned off, slamming the passenger side door behind her.

"Next time, I drive."

"But you don't have a car," Arad protested, examining the buttons on the remote. She pressed one, carefully avoiding the red panic button as if previous experience had taught her caution in that particular area. Satisfied by the clicking noise the locks made as they clunked into place, she shoved the keychain in her pocket and rounded the backside of the truck to join her friend. "Except maybe the Neon, but that can hardly be counted as a car."

"I'll borrow my brother's."

"Like hell he'd let you."

"Like hell he'd need to know," Kate shot back, rolling her eyes as they started across the parking lot. "Come on, let's go grab some popcorn before it starts."

"I hate popcorn, it gets stuck in my teeth," Arad grumbled, annoyed at the criticism of her driving skills. "How about nachos?"

"Ew, greasy nuked cheese."

"It is not nuked," Arad protested, jogging up over the curb to catch up. They walked double time up to the front door of the museum. "It's in a hotpot."

"A hotpot they never clean out," Kate added, brushing past her into the lobby and dodging a random patron who attempted to exit at the same time. Her bracelets clinked, barely adding to the din of the nearby arcade. "There's probably bugs stuck to the bottom."

Arad made a disgusted face as this fact was contemplated, losing a few seconds as her pace slowed. Upon realizing that her friend was now five steps ahead of her and half-way up the metal stair case at the back of the hall, she quickly ran forward. Her boots made hollow thunking noises as she ran up the steps, inexpertly evading downward human traffic. The sound of her colliding with the first vestiges of carpet on the second floor was a muffled thud.

"Ow."

"Spaz," Kate said, shaking her head as she turned back to help. "You really need to stop eating so much sugar."

"Never," Arad replied, raising a hand in the air, her face still pressed into the floor. She climbed slowly back to her feet, rubbing a bruised elbow. Dusting off her jeans as she started forwards again, she glanced out the nearby window to where the infamous 'Recycle-saurus Rex' was supposed to be. Her view was blocked, firstly by a window sticker display for the movie they were en route to see, and secondly by what appeared to be a figment of her imagination. "Um."

"Um what?"

"I think I'm hallucinating again"

"Ignore it, we're late enough as it is," Kate informed her, spinning on her heels to march off towards the theater. She froze barely three steps onto the indoor cross-walk eyes pinned to the scene outside the window. It took a second for what she was seeing to register with her brain, for standing about head height with the window was something decidedly not a bad rendition of a dinosaur made of aluminum cans. It looked as much like a giant robot from a bad Japanese horror flick as a house cat resembles a tiger. This thing was well put together, and far stranger looking than anything concocted by special effects.

Just as soon as she spotted it, the robot ducked underneath the crosswalk and disappeared from sight. Kate pressed her face against the window, attempting to get a better view. A clonking noise next to her alerted her to the fact that Arad had also rushed the window, and managed to go a little too fast. They both peered down at the street below but there was nothing to suggest that the robot had even been standing there save for a few new cracks in the pavement.

"Were you hallucinating a giant bright yellow robot?" Kate inquired of her blonde comrade.

"Yes."

"Oh."

"Does that mean I'm not really seeing things?" Arad asked, rubbing her forehead from where it had collided with the glass. Kate nodded, patting her on the shoulder. "Well, that's good."

She tilted her head to the side, recalling a mental layout of the building.

"There's an elevator just around the corner."

"Let's go."

* * *

There really hadn't been enough time to wonder why his uncle had never mention that Florida actually possessed cool things like an IMAX dome theater or roller coasters. Sam had spotted the latter from the interstate just before they'd turned off, the tall metal skeletons gleaming on the horizon like beacons of hope for rescue from boredom. Not that cruising down the road with a giant robot disguised as a car in search of a phantom energy signal was boring, far from it. 

It was just getting there that had been rather tedious, especially since Bumblebee had discovered pop music. He'd been half tempted to walk, and had even threatened to throw himself from the moving car when strains of 'Oops, I did it again' caught him off-guard after a record five minutes of silence. At that point the doors had locked, keeping him from injuring himself in such a way, but the point had been made and no more tracks were played until they'd reached their final destination.

_Well, you told me about nowhere well it sounds like someplace I'd like to go._

Sam stared at the radio tuner, a puzzled frown on his face.

"Okay," he said after a moment, slowly shaking his head. "Never heard that song before, but it's definitely better than Britney Spears."

He climbed out, glancing around. They'd pulled in on a road around the back side of the museum that looked to be a bus loop or something similar. There was a crosswalk over the road leading from the main building into the gigantic blue dome that he assumed to be the theater, as well as another building across the way that appeared to be made of nothing but windows. It looked to be closed however and there was no one hanging around on the sidewalks save for a few people headed in the opposite direction.

Behind him, Sam heard the now familiar sound of folding and sliding metal that cued Bumblebee's transformation from bright yellow car to bright yellow robot. He didn't even bother noting that, despite the apparent seclusion of their current area, they weren't that far from civilization. The only thing that he seemed to notice was the crosswalk, which he ducked under in order to reach the relatively large open picnic area beneath the theater itself.

Sam followed, still keeping an eye out for other people, though his attention was abruptly drawn to where Bumblebee had paused to look. Still stooping in order to avoid hitting his forehead on the ceiling, the mechanoid was staring pointedly at the floor, the metallic equivalent of a frown on his face. Scrambling down the concrete steps, Sam saw that the object of his friend's gaze was a drainage grate so overly scuffed up that it had nearly been fused to the pavement. He stared at it as well, wondering how the hell to pry it up without causing noticeable damage.

"What are we looking at?" inquired a voice next to his ear, startling him so bad that he nearly fell backwards into the stone steps. The owner of the voice, however, caught his shoulder and held him rather awkwardly until he was able to stabilize his footing and look up. His face was reflected in the lenses of a pair of giant wire frame glasses framed by a tangled mess of dirty blonde hair. He stared for a moment, then shifted his gaze over her shoulder to Bumblebee, who now looked slightly confused.

Apparently this girl had snuck up without him noticing either.

"Can you let go of my elbow?" he asked, aware that her hand was still gripping his arm.

"Yes," she replied, not complying in the least. "I am perfectly capable of performing such an action."

"Ha, ha, ha, Arad," said another voice off to Sam's left. Out of his peripheral vision stepped the girl next door, looking annoyed at something other than him despite the fact that he was the focus of her frown. "Look, just answer her question or we'll be here all night."

"What question?"

"I could have let you fall you know," the bespectacled Arad informed him with an irritated sigh. "But since your memory appears faulty, I'll ask a different question and if you answer in all honesty I'll consider not pushing you down."

"Uh, okay," Sam agreed, not entirely sure on the last part because she'd spoken way to fast for his brain to comprehend. He didn't really think that there was much either of these girl's could do to him, and besides, they'd already seen Bumblebee. Which caused him to wonder why the seventeen foot tall robot had yet to do something about this sudden intrusion.

"Pay attention," Arad commanded, snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Why and how is there a giant robot, and what are you two doing staring at the floor?"

"That's two questions."

"No, it isn't, there's a conjunction."

"What?"

The girl stared at him, then suddenly stepped back throwing her hands up in apparent disgust. He heard her mutter something along the lines of 'kids these days, they never pay attention in language arts' but he couldn't be sure. The neighbor girl rolled her eyes, as if having heard such whispered rantings before.

"Look, we saw him from the window," she said, waving a hand at Bumblebee. "And since neither of you appear to be figments of our imaginations we figured that this is probably worth missing Spiderman for."

"Oh."

"So," said Arad, slinking back up. "What's your name?"

"Sam," he replied, tilting himself away from her huge glasses. "And that's Bumblebee."

Upon being introduced, the yellow clad robot gave a little wave.

"Bumblebee?" Arad repeated, staring upwards. "Wow."

"Wow what?"

She shrugged.

"I don't know, I felt like saying it."

"My name's Kate," the pony-tailed neighbor girl informed him, before her friend could launch into an explanation of her randomness. "So, what are you two looking for?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer :** Still don't own Transformers or any of the toys. Arad and Kate own themselves.

**Reviewers :**

Riana1 - So glad you like both Kate and Arad, they're having the time of their lives with this story I tell you.

Hope-Alive90 - Happy to know I made you laugh, real happy to know you like the story, and even happier that you want more of the story.

Gabriel the Fallen - Okay, well that does make sense that the Allspark would heal him. This tidbit of information is marked, noted, and shall probably make for an interesting plot point in about three to four chapters.

Fire From Above - Thankyou, hope you like this new chapter I've concocted.

**Note : **Introducing a brand new Autobot in this chapter based off my Dad's scary-ass Truck. I will tell you that I probably won't be introducing many of the Canon Autobots asides from the ones that appeared in the movie, mainly because I'm not sure I could handle their personalities since its been a while since I've watched the original show. I will, however, be bringing in some of the other Decepticons eventually, since we all know that Starscreams probably rounding up reinforcements. Again, I warn you that this story is also a crossover, though with what I shall leave you no clues until its due time. Anyways, enjoy this chapter.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Two

Sam tried to explain things as best he could. He was slightly hindered by Arad because the girl would not stop asking questions, at least until her friend threatened to take a sledgehammer to every electronic device she owned. Even then there were only ten minutes of peace before she was back asking what brand of sledgehammer was going to be used.

"I give up," Sam cried, throwing his hands in the air.

"Its okay, I think we got the gist of it anyways," Kate assured him before throwing Arad a dirty look. "Seriously girl, how much sugar have you had today?"

Arad twisted the hem of her shirt, face contorting into a twisted expression half-way between contemplation and annoyance as she considered the question.

"Three bags of M&Ms, two bottles of Mountain Dew, one bottle of Cherry Coke, a bag of rock candy, some Hershey Kisses-"

"How have you not died from that?" Sam asked incredulously. "That's-"

"Way more than the Doctor prescribed," Kate cut in, looking slightly angry. "You know you're not supposed to be drinking soda!"

The blonde girl stuck out her bottom lip in a horribly stubborn expression, folding her arms across her chest. She looked, in that moment, like a kindergartener refusing to share her favorite toys.

"Great, well, if you pass out and smash your chin open again it's not my fault," Kate muttered, turning to look up at Bumblebee. "So you detected some kind of energy signature coming from under here?"

He nodded, shuffling slightly closer, gaze returning to the grate. It was almost two feet in diameter and held in place by approximately four heavily rusted bolts. He bent down lower and was able, after a few moments of twisting, to rip the bolts out. He was unable to get a grip on the grate itself, however, because the rim had sunk lower than the concrete due to wear and tear. Sam took over at that point, slipping his fingers through the smaller opening near the rim and hefting it out, having to put slightly more effort into the motion than he'd first counted on. It may have been small, but the lid was pretty damn heavy. He set it down against one of the nearby concrete steps and returned to the now opened hole.

"I think I see a banana peel," Kate commented as she peered down into the darkness.

Sam looked down as well, then frowned at the rim of the hole. It was far to narrow for his shoulders, he'd never be able to fit through. He glanced upwards at Bumblebee, who apparently was thinking exactly the same thing. The robot gestured towards the pouting Arad, hinting that the abnormally skinny girl was probably the only one who'd be able to crawl into the drain.

"Uh, hey, can I ask you a favor?" Sam inquired of the blonde. She looked up at him from her seat a few feet away, expression becoming one of infinite irritation, slightly surprising him. "What?"

"You're going to ask me to crawl down the drain because I'm the skinniest one here, aren't you?"

"Er..."

Arad rolled her eyes and swung her miniature backpack off her shoulder, deftly undoing the Velcro straps that kept it shut. Digging through it she pulled out several different objects including a maglite, a wrist band, knee and elbow pads, gloves, and a collapsible shovel.

"Why do you have all that in your bag?" Sam asked, frowning as he picked up the gloves. He then glanced at the bag, the apparent connection between the size of the objects and the carrying capacity of the bag creating a bit of a paradox. "Wait, how do you have all this in your bag?"

She ignored him, instead placing the wristband around her right arm and sticking the maglite through the underside. This done, she retrieved the knee pads and secured them over her knees, then repeated with the elbow pads. Finished with this step in her preparation process, she turned back to Sam and grabbed the gloves back, sticking them on her hands with deliberate forcefulness, as if his comment on her backpack had been an attack on her person. She then plucked the collapsible shovel from the ground and, with a slight shake so that it unfolded into its full shape, twirled to face the hole.

At this point Kate took a step back, frowning slightly at her friend.

"Do you even know what you're looking for?"

Arad considered this for a moment, then shrugged, glancing up at the giant robot for an answer. Bumblebee mimicked her, apparently as perplexed as to the form of the energy signature as anyone.

"Great," Kate muttered. "You're spelunking after a questionably existent object."

"Best reason to do so anyways," Arad commented, turning on her flashlight. Pointing the beam into the hole, she murmured something under her breath and retrieved yet another object from her backpack. "Here, hold this."

Sam took the small coil of rope from her, once again wondering about the dimensions of her bag yet managing to keep his mouth shut about it this time. He watched as she climbed through the opening, first sticking one leg in and then the other, then dropped through and out of sight. They heard her hit the ground with a slightly wet squelching sound.

"You alright?" Kate called down.

"Yeah, just glad I wore my work boots," Arad shouted back up. "And you were right, there's a banana peel down here, and a yogurt cup."

"What kind?"

"Blueberry."

"Ew."

"Could we focus on something other than trash, please?" Sam asked, exasperated. "Please?"

There was silent from the drainage hole for approximately thirty seconds, broken by a startled shriek.

"RAT!!"

There followed a series of thumps as Arad defending herself from the rodent, then a thwanging sound as the shovel hit something other than dirt. Several more thwangs erupted, the noise apparently interesting enough to provoke an unpracticed attempt at creating a percussionary rhythm. The improvised beat was interrupted by a shattering clank, followed by a loud series of obscenities.

"What happened?" Kate inquired, anxiously leaning forward for a better view into the hole. "You okay?"

"Damn thing broke the shovel."

"What kind of thing?" asked Sam, questioning in a concerned tone. "What's it look like?"

There was a pause as if the girl was considering the best way to answer the question.

"It looks like that stupid square cooler my dad always takes with him to work, but it sounds like it's made of metal," she shouted back. "It's kind of grimy, like it got pushed up by the muck or something."

There was a pause, as if for dramatic effect.

"Oh, and it's got glowing swirly marks on it."

At her words, Bumblebee started forward a little bit, forgetting about the low ceiling of the dome overhead. He hit what counted as his forehead on the concrete and stumbled backwards with a static hiss.

"You okay?" Kate asked, staring at him. The robot slowly nodded, holding a hand up to his head to poke the new scratch in his paint.

"Hey, throw down the rope!"

Sam came forward, uncoiling a length of it and tossing one end down into the hole. He felt her tug on it a couple times, the cord swinging back and forth as she tied it to the object she had found.

"Okay, pull it up!"

With a grunt, he yanked it upwards but it got stuck against the rim for a moment. After a few seconds, however, he was able to pull it loose. The unfortunate effect of this was gravity taking claim and causing him to fall backwards into the concrete steps.

"Ow, he groaned, rubbing his back. He was distracted from the pain upon seeing the familiar looking object he'd managed to pull out. Unless his eyes were malfunctioning in a severely horrible way, the thing sitting on the concrete in front of him was the Allspark. "What the hell?"

Bumblebee leaned down over him to pick it up, optics focusing on the cube.

"Is that it?" Kate inquired, staring upwards. "Is that what you were looking for?"

The robot tilted its head to the side as if perplexed, then nodded once.

"I can't believe it," Sam muttered, shaking his head. "It was destroyed, I saw it! I was there!"

There was a clank behind them, which upon turning was simply Arad attempting to return the grate to its original location. She tried once to lift it, then decided that rolling it back into position was probably a better way to go.

"Thanks for the help," she muttered, glaring at all three of them. "Seriously, you couldn't throw the rope down a second time?"

Shaking her head, she stripped off her now grimy gloves and pads, tossing them towards a nearby trashcan. Five out of six of the objects made it in, but her right knee pad had gotten more mud on it than the others and thus bounced off the outside rim. She was about to turn back around to gripe about having to climb out of the drainage area without any outside assistance when the blaring of a truck horn assaulted her eardrums. Thoroughly shocked, Arad did the only thing that she was capable of doing in a sudden state of panic.

She screamed.

* * *

He had been on this planet for nearly two weeks, waiting for his traveling companions to get back in touch before attempting to contact anyone else. His camouflage had been forced upon him by accidental circumstances, mainly the fact that he'd mistakenly destroyed the original truck, but he'd grown to like it for several reasons. The first reason being that this particular vehicle could venture where others of a similar make could not, mainly over and through anything of a slightly lesser size. The second and main reason was that this particular vehicle design was more than slightly terrifying to the organic bipeds that inhabited the globe. 

He hadn't learned very much about the natives, mainly because their planetary information network contained too much contradicting data and he hadn't really wanted to sift through it. What he had learned, however, came mostly from the bipeds who had claimed ownership over his vehicle form.

The main one was a skinny and decidedly insane female. Her tendency to drive into the path of oncoming vehicles and to yell loudly at random intervals had led him to this conclusion. Her constant ingestion of a substance known as sugar would occasionally cause her to hold long and involved conversations with herself. She had annoyed him to no end with ceaseless monologues concerning the Roswell Conspiracy, Area 51, Playstation, and something called bubble wrap. She was occasionally joined by her friend, a less crazy female who seemed to be obsessed with a form of entertainment media known as Japanese Animation. The two normally traveled to various stores or what a place called Beacon Theaters, although he had yet to figure out the function behind that particular building.

Today, however, had deviated from the usual schedule. They had driven much farther and much faster than normal only to arrive at a building designated as MOSI. Unsure of its purpose, he had been prepared to wait any length of time, grateful for the silence after nearly an hour of the horrible grating noise that passed for music on this planet. However, soon after the two had disappeared into the building he had detected another of his kind nearby.

Determined to investigate, he'd pulled out from the parking lot and drove through a small circle of roads before coming to the back corner of the building. He'd turned slowly onto the back loop, taking in the area from the small ramp that led into the main building, to the crosswalk that lead into the large dome on the other side of the street. It was underneath that particular area that he spotted them.

To be specific, he'd spotted Bumblebee first and only noticed the humans due to their incessant chatter.

It was then that he'd crept up, rolling down the pavement as silently as possible until he was as close as he could get without drawing undue attention. Then he laid into the horn, amplifying the already deafening noise into a literal wall of sound. Such an action probably would have drawn undo attention to their presence, but it was worth it just to see that skinny human girl's reaction.

He regretted it an instant later when she let out a circuit breaking shriek.

* * *

Sam had the presence of mind to clamp a hand over Arad's mouth before she found a pitch suitable to shatter glass. In response she bit his hand and elbowed him in the gut, twisting away and falling backwards over her discarded backpack. She threw her arms out and caught herself on the step to her right before her skull could collide with the concrete, although she did manage to scrape the palms of her hands. 

"She bit me!" Sam cried, staring down at his hand where, sure enough, there was a slight indentation of teeth marks. He looked towards Kate, but her attention was solely on the street, eyes slowly widening.

He followed her gaze.

There, idling on the asphalt, was the blazing red Silverado he'd seen the two girls driving earlier. After a second or two, it shook, the crew cab folding inward and upward. Having seen a similar transformation in the form of the Autobot Ironhide, Sam was not in the least bit disturbed by the sight. The two girls, however, were new to the experience and watched in an almost horrified silence as the truck bed and inner framework contorted, rotated, and folded until at last what stood before them was far more robot than truck.

"Holy shit," murmured Arad from the floor, gaping openly. "My dad's truck is an alien robot."

He was much taller than Bumblebee, slightly wider, and definitely bulkier, such that he didn't even bother trying to crouch under the crosswalk. His body was still the same eye-blistering red of the truck, and he appeared to have a look of perpetual annoyance. One glance sideways at Bumblebee, however, was all Sam needed to know that this guy was on their side. His friend had initially powered up his cannon, but had now lowered it in apparent recognition of the newcomer.

"He's even scarier as a robot," Kate murmured, shuffling up behind Sam to peer over his shoulder. "Is he a good guy or-"

"Where's the real truck?"

As seemed to be a rather normal occurrence, Arad's train of thought had taken a different route. She had climbed to her feet and was now glaring up at the craggy metallic face of the former pick-up.

"Well?"

"I stepped on it," the vermillion hued robot answered in a deep yet almost embarrassed sounding voice.

"You what!?"

"It was an accident!"

"An accident!?"

"I tripped!!" he informed her defensively, throwing a look at Bumblebee demanding help in dealing with the girl. Sam could have sworn he heard his friend snicker.

"Oh, you tripped, well that's okay," Arad said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "My dad's going to be pissed when he finds out!!"

"If he finds out," Kate threw in, causing her friend to pause in consideration.

"If?" she murmured, suddenly acquiring a wicked smile. "If is good."

"So, uh, who're you?" Sam asked, unnecessarily shading his eyes as he looked upwards at their new acquaintance. The robot sighed at this and knelt down partially as if it was of great annoyance for him.

"I suppose you could refer to me by the label these two have been using," he said, gesturing towards the girls. "It is as good as any other designation."

"What, Tank?" Arad asked, looking surprised. "Your name is Tank? Like the original truck?"

"Yes!"

"Yay! I have a giant robot!!"

"What!? I am not yours to own and- GAH!! Stop jumping around like that!!"

Once again, Sam could have sworn he heard Bumblebee attempting to suppress a laugh.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer :** Don't own Transformers, but I have some of the Burger King Toys now. Kate, Arad, and Tank own themselves, at least most of the time they do.

**Reviewers :**

Psychic-Ghost - So long as you review, I don't mind if you crush the English Language.

Fire From Above - Glad you like Tank, he's got some good parts coming up in the next few chapters after this. I'm not quite sure what will make Bumblebee laugh full out yet.

moonlightbear - Hurrah for Floridians! I'd be inhabiting Hernando County, how 'bout you?

FK306 animelover - Glad you like him.

Riana1 - I don't know about genious, but I'm glad you like Tank and the girls. We'll be going to Arad's house in the chapter after this one.

**Note : **This chapter's a little late due to recent events. Kate's younger brother got into a wreck the other day. He's fine, which is a big relief, but the whole thing has been dominating my brain for the better part of three days. That and the fact that my Summer Exams are coming up this week. I'm under pressure to not fail math again, so I must study, study, study my ass off. So enjoy this chapter, it may be a while before the next one gets posted.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Three

"You should probably change back," Sam suggested with a nervous glance up at the glass windowed crosswalk. He could have sworn he'd seen movement in the form of panicked civilians running past the reflections in the glass. "I mean right now."

"Why? There are no other humans in sight range," Tank intoned, glancing back down the street.

"Yeah, well there's gonna be," Sam retorted, waving a hand in the air for emphasis. "Especially after your grand entrance. What the hell did you have to be so loud for!"

"I wanted to see her jump," Tank informed him, nodding his head towards Arad who had zoned out in a futile attempt to fix her hair. Noticing that she had suddenly become the focus attention, she suddenly took on an air of paranoia. This was apparently a natural self-defense reaction.

"What?"

"Geez, and you were yelling at me to pay attention," Sam muttered, sighing. Out of his peripheral vision he saw several people running down the museum's interior stairs. "Look, we need to get out of here!"

Tank started to say something else in protest but stopped in shock when Kate kicked his foot.

"Don't argue," she hissed up at his surprised face. "The elevators are moving!"

Tank twisted his head to look, then growled in annoyance. With a sound akin to the grinding of metallic teeth, he reassumed the form of the pick-up truck in the grumpiest fashion possible. Bumblebee shifted back into Camaro form as well, but with less pouting and more of a practiced grace. He was also much quicker about it. Tank took a full ten seconds longer to sort out each particular part.

As soon as he'd reverted back to Silverado mode, Arad ran forward, intending to climb into the driver's seat. Tank, however, refused to open the door. A decidedly short and one-sided tug of war battle broke out.

"Hey, what are you five!?" Sam cried, pulling her away from the truck.

"He started it," she pouted, sticking out her tongue.

"I will not tolerate this female's insanity and lack of adherence to local road rules," Tank grunted, locking all doors as she attempted to dive past Sam in an effort to got through the back left passenger door. He managed to block her path, but just barely.

"Who're you calling insane!?"

"Arad, let the truck drive itself," Kate yelled, circling around to the other side of the truck. She glanced up at the museum windows, noting that there were now several people watching them, gawkers who probably thought that there'd been some kind of accident. Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to the others. "There's a dirt lot about a block behind here where they usually hold the Renaissance Fair, should be empty this time of year."

Sam nodded in agreement, still preoccupied by Arad's attempt to claim driving privileges. He wasn't having much luck, so Kate reached into her purse, pulling out a bag of dark chocolate M&Ms usually reserved for emergencies.

"Arad, shut up and catch!"

The blonde looked up and managed to snatch the purple package out of the air a mere inch away from her nose.

"I do not think giving her more glucose ridden food products will help," Tank griped, reluctantly allowing the blonde to climb into the backseat.

"Yeah, well at least she'll be preoccupied for the next five minutes."

Seeing that the driving dispute had been settled, Sam turned to where Bumblebee was idling. He climbed into the driver's seat, noting that the copycat Allspark was sitting on the passenger's side, seatbelt tucked around it. He was about to lean over and pick it up when his phone rang. Coupled with the fact that the car had started forward at that exact same moment and his already high stress level, he managed to drop it, hit his head on the dashboard, and drop it again before answering.

"Hello?"

((Sam.))

"Optimus, great, just the guy I wanted to talk to. Look we got the thing, but there's a little bit of a, uh, situation and-"

((I am already aware of your present company.))

"Oh, well, that's good," Sam murmured, sitting up straight and fastening his own seatbelt. He was a little miffed that Bumblebee had already managed to relay the current situation to the Autobot leader before he could get a chance to tell the story himself. "So-"

((We are headed towards your location.))

"What, everyone!?" Sam cried, nearly dropping the phone again. He hardly noticed that they'd already pulled into the mulch-filled back lot. "This is Florida, you're in Nevada, that's a three day drive!!"

((We do not need to rest as often as you do.))

_Who need's sleep, well you're never gonna get it. Who needs sleep, tell me what's that for._

"Thanks 'Bee, I kind of got the idea," Sam muttered, then turned back to the phone. "Still, we could bring it back with us on Friday. You don't need to come all the way down here."

((No, this can not wait. I fear there is something far more sinister involved in this than first evidenced. In the past hour, at least five more energy signals have appeared in this arm of the galaxy alone.))

"WHAT!?"

* * *

Tank roared out from under the crosswalk, following Bumblebee towards the back lot. Despite the fact that the trip took less than five minutes, it felt longer for in between tossing candy coated chocolates in her mouth, Arad was managing to utilize her vocal chords.

"This is really weird," she mumbled, staring at the steering wheel as it moved of its own accord. "How did you learn to drive?"

"That's the stupidest question I've ever heard," Kate informed her friend, twisting around to face the backseat. "He's a truck, I'm pretty sure it comes automatically."

"Yeah, but, I mean, how's he know to stop at stop signs and stuff like that?"

"The internet," Tank stated, sounding annoyed. "It was one of the few things I found on your world wide network to be useful."

"You googled Driver's Ed classes?"

"Why is that surprising?" Kate asked, rolling her eyes. "You can find anything on the internet. And I mean anything."

"No, you can't."

"Oh really, name one thing you can't find on the internet."

"Step by step instructions on how to build a nuclear reactor."

"Why the hell would you want to build a nuclear reactor?" Kate asked, looking more than a little unnerved at the idea. "And what makes you think such information should be public knowledge!?"

"I need an energy supply so I can build an electron collider," Arad mumbled, pretending to inspect a crack in on of her M&Ms. "I can't just plug into the outlets at home, it'll burn out every circuit breaker in the house."

"I do not think you should be allowed such knowledge." Tank told her, turning into the back lot. "It would be irresponsible and potentially dangerous for your species if you were to have those schematics."

"I agree," Kate chirped with a nod. "Many things you are, Arad, but nuclear physicist isn't one of them."

"Just because I don't have a PHD-"

"Shut up."

"Hey, that's rude," Arad protested, crumpling her now empty bag of M&Ms and throwing it at the dashboard. In response Tank threw open the doors and tipped over, tossing first her and then Kate onto the ground outside.

"Great, you pissed him off."

"Yeah, well he shouldn't have told me to shut up," Arad muttered in self-defense, flicking pieces of mulch off her shirt. She looked over at where the Camaro had pulled up, noticing that Sam had yet to get out of the car despite the fact that the door was hanging open. Seeing that he was speaking on the phone, she did the only sensible thing (in here mind, anyways) to do. She walked over as casually as possible, hands stuck in her pockets in the appearance of nonchalance. Once next to the car, she leaned in through the door so that she was right next to his uncovered ear. "Who're you talking to?"

"GAH!!"

He jumped, having not noticed her, and hit his head on the ceiling.

"Don't do that!!"

"Sorry," Arad said unconvincingly, glancing at the car radio with a frown. She was pretty sure she'd heard a minor chuckle emanating from the speakers. "So what's the plan?"

Sam looked at her in bewilderment, for never had it once crossed his mind that the girl and her friend would actually be expecting to continue their participation in this latest series of problems. She apparently guessed his thoughts and looked more than slightly irked by it.

"You think I crawled around in a muddy drainage pipe for nothing?"

"Uh, sorry, I just-" he started to say, then stopped, an idea suddenly striking him. "Hey, you know this area right?"

"I live here," she answered, giving him an 'are-you-stupid-simple-or-slow' look.

"Right, so is there any place around here that's secluded? I mean, more secluded than my uncle's house?"

Kate moved into hearing range just then, scowling slightly.

"What's more secluded than an island with more gators on it than actual people," she inquired grumpily. "Got a problem with it?"

"No, it's just, there's too many trees," he told her, thinking quickly. "And we've got more-"

"More robots coming?" Arad asked, suddenly grinning like mad. "How about my house?"

"Your house," Sam repeated skeptically. "Why?"

"How many reasons do you want?" Arad inquired with a shrug as she bent down to retie her boots. "Its in the middle of nowhere, there's about a dozen acres of open fields all around it, my parents are out of town, there's no neighbors to wonder why there's a dozen and a half strange vehicles on the lawn, there's this planet's only completely secure wi-fi hub, a large supply of soda and junk food, there's-"

"Okay, okay, I get the picture, just, I don't know."

"As much as it annoys me," Tank spoke up, rolling up next to where Bumblebee had parked. He sounded as if the very thought in his mind was excruciatingly painful to voice. "She is correct. Her house is the best location."

"Exactly."

Sam sighed and turned his attention back to the cell phone only to have it yanked out of his hand.

"Hey!"

"I give directions, not you," she informed him, sticking out her tongue before speaking into the receiver. He tried to grab the phone back, but she dodged him and trotted out of reach. "Hello, I'm sure you probably heard the plan, we're gonna meet at my house."

((Yes, what is the address?))

"See that's where we run into a little problem," Arad said, twirling away as Sam tried again to snatch the phone away from her. Now leaning against Tank's back passenger door, Kate shook her head, apparently exasperated or too amused by the scene to assist in any way.

((What is the problem?))

"My house is rather difficult to find."

((This will not present a problem, we have access to the world wide web. There is a-))

"Uh huh, that is the problem," Arad said flatly, accidentally-on-purpose stepping on Sam's toe. "My house is not on any map. It's been erased from Google, Yahoo, Mapquest, and any other triangulation program utilized by the internet. It technically doesn't exist, save for in the US Postal System computer which is a non-connected server."

((How do you know this?))

"Because I erased it."

"You did?" Kate asked, looking a little surprised by the revelation. "Why?"

"So the government wouldn't steal my computers again."

"Again?"

"Look, just give him the directions, will you?" Sam cried. He glared at her from his seat on the mulch, massaging his foot. "I want my phone back and what are your shoes made of, lead?"

"Steel, actually," Arad replied, shaking her head as she went back to speaking into the phone. As she relayed the directions, Kate knelt down next to Sam, frowning as he pulled his shoe back on.

"Your friend's a real nutcase, you know," he informed her, tightening his laces.

"Yeah, well, I've gotten used to it."

* * *

A few moments later, Arad snapped the phone shut, the turned around to chuck it at Sam's head. It hit him on the temple and bounced off into the dirt.

"What the fuck did you do that for!?"

She shrugged, adjusting the sleeves of her shirt in a fidgety sort of way.

"That was really uncalled for!" Sam informed her loudly, now rubbing his head. "What's wrong with you."

"A multitude of things," Tank answered before Arad could say anything, clicking open one of the back doors of the crew cab. "I believe the overdose of sugar that she induced this morning has been depleted."

"She's coming down off a sugar high?"

"Yes."

"Great," Sam muttered, snatching up his phone. He shoved it in his pocket with a glance at Kate, who was brushing the mulch off her pants. "So, I guess we'll follow you guys?"

She nodded, using the step-side to climb back into the truck. As she settled herself back into the passenger seat, Arad leaned forward peeking around the headrest.

"You know we missed the movie, right?"

"DAMN IT!!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer :** I still do not own Transformers or Hasbro, though its not through lack of trying. Arad, Kate, and Tank own themselves. Arad's house, which I'm pretty sure has a mind of its own as well, does not own itself until the year 2018, providing that there are no instances of lottery winnings.

**Reviewers : **

Riana1 - Arad's a tad bit more than a superhacker, as you'll see a bit in this chapter. I do believe I shall have her meet Glen and get into an argument with him over technical jargony things.

libra4eva - Your wish is granted.

Kiseki no Tenshi, Hope and love - Thankyou, glad that both of you like it.

Fire From Above - Makes me happy that you like Tank, because I like him too. He's starting to become more of a major character in my head than I anticipated, so perhaps I'll give him some more 'screen time' possibly bashing Decepticons.

Chibi Yoshi - Another Floridian! Yay! Unfortunately, we shall be exiting Pinellas in this story, and I don't think that we'll be making a trip to Tarpon Springs, sorry.

Fk306 animelover - Arad is worse than everybody on a sugar high and then some, but only because she's naturally hyperactive to begin with.

**Note :** Okay, so maybe the crossover series will be revealed in Chapter Five instead of this one. And a warning, I'll be in Boston all of next week visiting obscure relatives, so I won't be able to post anything until I get back. I am, however, bringing my laptop of doom with me, so's I'll be able to continue writing.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Four

_...on the highway to hell, highway to hell!!_

Sam leaned back in his seat, laughing at Bumblebee's current choice of music. He glanced out the window at the red Silverado driving ahead of them, grinning. It was certaintly true that the traffic was horrible and that their destination was more than likely similar to the terrifying inferno of the underworld given the impression he'd gotten of Arad. They'd been driving for little more than an hour and there was nothing to see except pine trees, water, orange trees, and more water. And even though the crowd of cars had dwindled a bit since leaving the Tampa area, there were still a few crazy drivers who attempted to cut them off.

Tank responded to such actions by blaring the horn in much the same way he'd used to scare Arad back at the museum. If the offending vehicles did not promptly remove themselves from the giant pick-up's path, the aptly named robot would pull up an inch away from their bumper's with an amplified roar of the engine. At this point most driver's decided to get out of the way, throwing obscenities and the one-fingered salute out the window, all of which Tank apparently ignored. He'd settle back on his wheels and back into a cruising speed just over the speed limit, appearing even from behind to look smug.

It was only when the exit for Dade City arrived that the truck ceased bullying those ahead of him, mainly due to the fact that there were no longer any other cars to yell at. The roads following almost blended together the previous pine and orange trees into one blob of greenery. They spent five minutes on a road called Spring Lake Highway, though Sam saw neither spring nor lake from the street, just an overgrowth of trees and the occasional dirt turn off.

Eventually Tank turned down one of the limestone roads, though Bumblebee seemed reluctant to follow through the muck. He only proceeded when Sam promised a thorough wash upon their return home.

That muck ridden excuse for a street curved several times through an expanse of Floridian jungle. It was followed by another turn off onto yet a different limestone avenue, and then a third and a fourth until they abruptly hit pavement once more. This smoother surface led through a far denser stand of trees before breaking through into a large field of tangled grass. Smack in the middle of that space sat a medium sized two-story white house with two single unit garages attached to the side and an almost neon blue front door. There was a beige Chevy Cavalier sitting in front of one of the garages, looking slightly forlorn and forgotten all by itself.

Tank pulled up behind the car and waited impatiently for his passengers to disembark. Bumblebee parked nearby, clicking the door open just in time for Sam to catch the tail end of an argument.

"Drive your own car next time!!" Tank bellowed, shifting roughly into his natural form and throwing his perpetual glare at Arad's back. "Crazy adolescent spawn of a primate!"

"Adolescent!?" she shrieked back, twirling on the spot. Her hair almost standing on end. "I'll have you know I'm nine months away from being legally able to imbibe alcohol, you walking bucket of bolts!!"

"Hah, I'd be more impressed if that statement wasn't completely false!"

"Actually Tank, she's a year younger than I am," Kate corrected in a calm tone of voice, adjusting her ponytail. "And I'm twenty-one, F-Y-I."

"Your twenty one?" Sam echoed, staring at her. Everything from her attire to her height and possibly her body-mass index hinted otherwise. Equally shocking was the revelation that Arad, in all her skinniness and outward immaturity, was three years older than he was. "And she's twenty? Holy crap, how is that possible?"

"Well, there's this whole complicated thing about hyper-active metabolisms."

"Hello, I'm standing right here, you know," Arad said, waving her hand through the air in order to grab his attention. "I can hear you!"

_Can you hear me, are you near me?_

Arad spun to her immediate left where Bumblebee had transformed unnoticed.

"Helena by My Chemical Romance."

The yellow mech clapped his hands together and nodded, playing a soundbyte of a cheering crowd. Arad let out a giggle.

"He's adorable!" she squealed, grinning like a child at heart. "Sam can we trade robots!?"

"No!" Sam cried, a little more indignantly than he'd intended. "I mean, geez, he's not a thing you know, he's alive!"

"I can see that."

Bumblebee shook his head, looking amused at the exchange, blue optics shining brighter than normal.

"What are you laughing at, '_halfpint'_?" Tank asked of the smaller bot, sounding grumpier than before. "She wants you as a pet!"

"'_Halfpint_'?" Bumblebee echoed, replaying the same sound-clip the bigger mech had found and managing to sound perplexed despite the audio not being his actual voice.

"Pet?" Arad repeated at exactly the same moment, looking slightly disgruntled. "I don't think giant alien robots qualify as pets and why do you sound like Wolverine!?"

She blinked upwards at the two of them, awaiting an explanation.

They were spared answering by the sudden sound of Sam's cellphone going off yet again. He grabbed it from his pocket and almost didn't bother looking at the screen, though a second later he was glad that he did.

"Parents!" he hissed at the group before answering. "Hello? Mom, hi, what's up?"  
((Don't act all innocent with me young man! Where are you? You're Uncle said you just ran off babbling about some friend who got in a wreck or something? It wasn't Miles was it? I told him he should of had that noise checked out in that crap-))

"Mom, mom!!" Sam yelled into the phone, attempting to stop the rant before she got fully into it. "It wasn't Miles, it was someone else from school, my old lab partner."

((That still doesn't explain where you are. It's almost seven-thirty, you've missed dinner and I don't think your Uncle's really appreciative of you dissappearing on barbecue night. You know how he is, its just like-))

"I'm at the movies, mom," Sam cut in, thinking quickly. "That girl who lives next door to Uncle Charles, she invited me to come hang out with her and some friends, so I said-"

((Does Mikaela know your out with another girl?))

"Mom! It's not like that, geez!! I wouldn't-"

He stopped, because Kate had gestured for him to hand over the phone. She was evidently feeling that the conversation wasn't going well. He reluctantly turned it over, hoping against hope that she wouldn't make it worse.

"Hello, Mrs. Witwicky?" she asked, speaking clearly into the receiver. "Hi, I'm Kate, I live next door, yeah, that's me. My friend Arad and I were heading to the movies to meet my brother, his girlfriend, and my boyfriend, but see, we were going to play laser tag afterwards and we didn't have enough people."

She paused, sending Sam a reassuring smile to signal that his mom was buying the story.

"Yeah. We saw Sam and just asked if he'd like to come, he said yes. I'm sorry, I didn't know he didn't tell you."

She looked up, pausing to listen to the other end of the conversation.

"We stopped at this little Mexican restaurant downtown, it's called El Ranchito. You really should try it while your here, you know. Uh huh, okay. Don't worry, we'll send him home by eleven. Yes, alright. It was nice talking to you too."

With a click, she slid the phone shut and tossed it back to Sam.

"You're off the hook for now, Witwicky," she informed him with a mild frown. "She said next time you pull something like this you're grounded until your thirty."

"Thanks," Sam said, shoving his phone back in his pocket. "Seriously, from the bottom of my heart, thank you."

"Yeah, yeah," Kate muttered, waving it off before gesturing towards the house. "Come on, lets go raid the fridge."

* * *

Arad looked rather annoyed. 

This was partially because there were no more frozen quesadillas for her to snack on and partially because the rest of the party had discovered the interior of the garage. It had occured by pure accident when Tank inadvertantly activated the door opener. Upon hearing the noise, Sam had gone to investigate since neither Kate nor Arad had been present in that area of the house at that time. Both girls were in the kitchen, the former investigating the possibilities of various meals revolving around eggs whilst the latter was yelling at the toaster.

The garage, Sam had discovered, looked like Radioshack had been involved in a threesome with both the chemistry lab and the metal shop from his high school. There were computers and electronic devices covering one entire wall, a table in the center decorated with various test tubes filled with strangely colored substances, and a something that looked like the regurgitated insides of a water heater. There were metal crates stacked in one corner and a filing cabinet in another, with a makeshift plywood wall separating everything from the actual garage door itself. As he looked through the contents of the un-airconditioned chamber, he noticed a small gadget lying on the corner of the table.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!!"

Arad slapped his hand just as he reached to pick it up, appearing almost out of nowhere.

"Why, what is it?" Sam asked, pulling his hand away as she snatched the odd triangular shaped thing away and placed it within a larger metal case.

"It's a matter compressor," she informed him, snapping the case shut. "And I'm still trying to work out the kinks in it-"

"A matter compressor?" Tank echoed, peering over the plywood wall. He clearly hadn't been exposed to the inner workings of the garage. He sounded stunned by the revalation. "You created a matter compressor?"

"It's just a prototype," she informed him darkly. "It doesn't work properly yet."

"How?"

"There's only fifty-two percent structural integrity in the expanding process."

"Fifty-two!" Tank cried, metal face suddenly showing amazement. "Only fifty-two!? Do you know how long Cybertronian Scientist have been trying to get at least ten percent re-integration!?"

"No," she answered sullenly. Evidently she didn't like talking about her projects, but that didn't stop Tank from going on about it.

_Shut up! Shut up! Just Shut Up!_

The red mech stopped, almost just as surprised by Arad's apparent genius as by Bumblebee's interjection.

"One Step Closer by Linkin Park," Arad snapped so quickly that the words ran together.

"_'Bingo, Johnny, what's her prize_!?'" quoted Bumblebee, once again applauding. The glasses-clad girl didn't laugh this time around though, simply swirling back to glare at Sam.

"Why're you in here?"

"I heard the door open," he responded defensively. "I just went to look."

"Well, get out, it's not for show!"

She shoved him towards the door, slapping the interior garage remote as they neared the frame. Tank ducked out of the way just in time, grumbling under his breath about rude teenagers.

_Teenagers scare the living shit out of me..._

"Teenagers by My Chemical Romance," Arad shouted back at the closing door. "AND I'M NOT ONE OF THEM!!"

"Ow, my ear," Sam complained, only to get pushed through the living room door. "Geez, chill out!!"

"No, I will not chill out!!"

With that final shriek, she slammed the door and went stomping off down the hall only to dissappear upstairs. He stared after her, suddenly feeling more than a little uncomfortable. He was about to turn to go out the front door when he spotted Kate leaning against the wall, sipping a can of Cherry Coke.

"So, you've seen the garage," she said mildly, tilting her head. "Some crazy stuff in there, huh?"

"Yeah," he answered cautiously. "What's the stuff in the vials?"

"Hair dye," Kate responded in all seriousness. "It changes color depending on your mood."

"Really?"

"No," she snorted, face splitting into a grin. "It's chemicals for testing the water in the pool."

"There's a pool?"

Kate smacked her forehead in a dramatic fashion, looking terribly pained at his slow comprehension.

"Of course there's a pool. Why wouldn't there be a pool?"

"I dunno, its Florida, I thought there was enough water already," Sam muttered, shrugging his shoulders. A thought struck him that seemed slightly dangerous, but he gave voice to it anyways. "Um, if you don't mind me asking, why are you friends with Arad? I mean, you seem kind of, well, not crazy compared to her."

Kate stared at him, frowning down at her drink in consideration of how best to phrase the answer. After a few seconds she seemed to toss out her deliberations and simply gave a one shouldered shrug.

"Anime."

"What?"

"Anime," she repeated, using her soda can to gesture at the wall of DVDs stacked next to the living room television. "Japanese Animation. That's how we first became friends, we both liked Anime."

"Oh."

He stared at the DVD titles, all of which appeared to be bootlegged, realizing that the majority of them weren't of American origin. Some held names he recognized from his forays into watching Cartoon Network a few years back, like Dragon Ball Z and Gundam, whilst others were just plain strange. Intermixed were a few normal DVD titles of random science fiction films and comic book movies, as well as a few he recognized to be British comedy, but the vast majority were Japanese titles.

"Wow."

"Yeah," Kate agreed with a nod. " That's not even half of it, by the way. She's got three boxes of them in her room."

"Obsess much?"

"Its healthy to have at least one obsession," Kate informed him almost darkly. "And if it weren't for Anime, I think Arad would really be as crazy as everyone says she is."

* * *

When Sam went outside again he found both Tank and Bumblebee inspecting the cube with what appeared to be a mixture of puzzlement and genuine frustration. The latter emotion was more prominent in the bigger Autobot, his metallic scowl looking a bit more frightening than what could safely be deemed as normal. 

"What's wrong?"

"This isn't the Allspark," Tank informed him gruffly, abruptly sitting down on the gravel of the driveway.

"I could of told you that," Sam said, going over to sit on a large rock that appeared to have no more specific purpose than decoration. "The Allspark was destroyed along with Megatron. I was there, I saw it. I did it."

Bumblebee threw the red hued mech an 'I-told-you-so' look.

"But this cube is an exact match for the Allspark," Tank continued, ignoring him. "All of my sensors attest to it, but if what you say is true then-"

_Beleive me, I'm just as lost as you..._

"STILL FRAME BY TRAPT!!"

Sam turned in time to see Arad almost fall out of the upstairs window, the front half of her body hanging out over the roof of the porch. She caught herself just in time, scraping her hands against the shingles as she pushed herself back over the window frame.

"Ow."

"It amazes me that you have yet to perish through your own spontaneous behavior," Tank commented, staring at the girl. "Have you been ingesting more sugar?"

"Is water wet?"

"It depends on the current state of the amount of di-hydrogen monoxide in question."

"If I had a sledgehammer, I'd hit you right now," Arad informed him, a dark look in her eyes. "Right in whatever equates to an Achille's tendon."

"It would be amusing to see you try."

"Don't tempt me."

"Your upper body muscles appear to be insufficient for the task of even lifting a sledgehammer."

"At least I didn't have to look up the meaning of the word 'sledgehammer' before utilizing it in a sentence," Arad threw back, sticking out her tongue. "Modem head."

"Modem head?" Sam echoed, amazed at exactly how stupid the insult sounded. "That's the best you could come up with? Modem head?"

"I'm reserving the really nasty ones for the actual bad guys, thank you very much."

"Bad guys?"

"Yeah, you know, those decepti-whatevers you were talking about back at MOSI."

"You were paying attention!?" Sam cried, eyes widening slightly. "How!? You kept interrupting!"

"Despite popular opinion, my attention span is not as short as first observations may report," she responded, flicking an errant strand of hair out of her face. "And why are you even still here? Didn't you say it'd take a while for the rest of the giant robots to get to Florida?"

"Yeah, but Optimus said it wouldn't take them three days like it did me and Bee."

"Which means they'll probably be showing up tomorrow night."

She looked towards Bumblebee for confirmation. The yellow bot nodded in agreement, the antenna like things at the back of his head flicking up and down to exaggerate the motion. This caused Arad to giggle and nearly slip back out the window.

"Gosh, he's so adorable."

"He's a robot, he's not adorable," Sam told her indignantly, standing up from his seat on the rock. Bumblebee, however, seemed thoroughly pleased by the compliment, flicking the antenna up thrice more for Arad's amusement. "Don't encourage her!"

"I agree," Tank grumbled. "She's mentally unstable enough as it is without adding infatuation with an alien species to the list of things wrong with her cerebral cortex."

"Tank, I'd flick you off but I'm afraid the effort it'd take for you to look the action up on the internet might overload your circuits," Arad snapped before retreating into the house and slamming the window shut. It opened back up a second later only because she'd managed to get some of her hair stuck in the frame. Shutting it again more carefully, she sent the large red mech an angry glare, as if it were his fault.

"Females," Tank snorted, shaking his head in annoyance, then sending a glare at Bumblebee who had suddenly broken out into full on laughter. "What!?"

He then saw that Sam was also chuckling, which furthered his irritation.

"What!?"

"I think you're going to be stuck with them for a little longer," Sam replied, still grinning. "At least until tomorrow any- Hey wait a second!?"

He stared at Tank, thoughts of recent events processing through his head.

"If you knew where this house was, why didn't you just tell Optimus instead of letting Arad grab the phone from me?"

"My long-range communications ability is temporarily offline," Tank answered, sounding almost embarrassed to admit it.

"How?"

"It was damaged."

Both Sam and Bumblebee stared at him suspiciously.

"I hit one of the tall, metal, wire laden contraptions unpon landing," the large mech informed them in a blunt tone of voice, waving an arm off across the field at the trees in the distance. Sure enough, Sam spotted a line of metal telephone towers, one of which was currently missing. "I am currently unable to send a signal further than ten kilometers."

"Geez," Sam muttered, turning towards Bumblebee who seemed to clearly enjoy the other bot's embarassment. "Come on, we should probably get back to my Uncle's before my mom decides to change her mind about killing me."


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer :** You should know by now that I don't own Transformers.

**Reviews :**

Komi V - I strive towards writing stuff thats different than everything else. Glad to know I've succeeded, thank you for reading!!

hope and love - That's the same review as last time...shouldn't it say 'I still love it' instead?

Psychic Ghost - I wish I had a Bumblebee plushie...

Kiseki no Tenshi - Of course Bumblebee's cute, how can he not be with a name like Bumblebee?

Fire From Above - Bumblebee? Flirtatious? Huh, I didn't intend for it to come across that way...but then again, I'm writing this story as the muses deliver it to my subconscious. Glad you like Tank and his bullying-ness.

Mystic - Now's the next chapter.

Riana1 - Mecha Movie Fests! And my gawd, you're absolutely right about Eva 01. O.o

Notes : So I'm in Salem, doing the whole witch tour thing when I come across a comic book shop. Said shop had a cardboard cut out of G1 Megatron in the window. I wanted to run in there and hug it, but my Aunt was looking a little cranky about my obsessive compulsive window shopping. Anyways, here is the next chapter, which I'm not too happy with but it does move the story along a bit so yeah.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Five

At six in the morning the following day a certain young woman with neon pink hair was staring out the window of her house trying to figure out why the car from 'Back to the Future' was sitting in her backyard. Beneath it were the broken remains of a lawn chair. This appeared to be the extent of the damage down to the yard itself, for there were no ruts in the ground from tires. The fence was also relatively intact, in that it was still upright and doing its job of separating her yard from those of the neighbors.

After several moments of groggy contemplation, she concluded that it must be a hallucination brought on from lack of caffeine. She left the window, shuffling off into the shadowy bowels of the house only to return a few seconds later with a large mug of coffee.

The car was still there.

"Aw, hell," she muttered, taking a sip from the mug. "This is gonna be a lo-o-o-ong day."

* * *

It was much later, nearly four in the afternoon that Sam was able to sneak out of his Uncle's house. This time around was slightly more difficult than the last due to the fact that the arrival of several cousins meant he was sharing a room with somebody. Thankfully, he was able to feign a stomach-ache to get out of going on a boat ride through the maze of canals leading out through the trees into the actual ocean. He made a break for it after watching from the window to make sure that the boat was far enough out of sight. Now, as he and Bumblebee rode down what had to be the longest driveway in the universe, he was feeling more than a little bit worried that his mother might follow through on the groundation for life threat.

Arad's house looked the same as it did yesterday, except now there was what appeared to be a large bright pink stain on the side of the garage. Sitting next to the wall in question was the strange contraption he'd seen inside the garage turned laboratory, although now in proper lighting he could see that it no longer resembled the innards of an industrial water heater. It now appeared to be some kind of handheld cannon, with parts ripped from several paintball guns and possibly a vacuum cleaner. It was covered in the same exact pink substance now coating the wall, as was its creator, who was sitting slightly to the left with an amazingly clean clipboard in hand.

Tank was sitting several feet well out of the way, warily watching the girl and looking more than a little perturbed. He turned only to throw a nod in greeting towards Sam and Bumblebee, before looking back at the scene. It was then that Sam saw Kate sitting on the red mech's shoulder with the balance of a cat. Her dark brown hair was now in pigtails, and her attire had gone from the darkest of hues to the bright orange. She was eating an apple, but this seemed slightly irrelevant to the situation.

"It's a chalk-gun," she informed him before he could even ask. "And it's best not to inquire as to why or what need there would be for it."

She used the half-eaten apple to gesture towards the garage wall.

"She's not in a very good mood right now."

"Oh, okay," Sam said, staring at her. "Why are you sitting on Tank?"

"It's safer than sitting on the roof," the bot answered, optics still focused on Arad. "Or anywhere else in the immediate vicinity."

This information took a moment to sink in.

"So should I, uh-"

There was a loud 'whumph' sound, and a sudden explosion of pink dust as a large amount of chalk collided with the side of the beige Cavalier parked not three feet away from where Sam was standing. Temporarily blinded, he stumbled off into the grass, coughing too violently to notice that the pink particles were now adhered to his clothes and hair. Bumblebee, who had managed to avoid the chalk explosion, now moved in closer, looking greatly concerned as he poked his human friend in the back. Sam waved him off, clearing his throat and blinking rapidly to clean out his eyes, all whilst trying to think of something to shout at the crazy blonde mad scientist.

Kate, however, beat him to the punch.

"ARAD!!"

"What!?"

"Put that damn thing up before you hurt somebody!!" Kate shouted from Tank's shoulder, throwing the remains of her apple at the blonde's head. It missed only because she was still weighed down by the now smoking cannon. "You nearly hit Sam!!"

"So? Chalk isn't lethal."

"At the speeds your so-called gun is launching this substance and with a slight increase in quantity, it could be," Tank broke in. Sam's eyesight cleared in time to see the mech point at the car, which, in addition to the new coat of pink, was now sporting a dent in the front passenger door. "As of this moment, however, a direct hit from it would result in severe injury. To humans anyway."

"Because that's my whole goal in life, to injure other members of my species," Arad muttered, rolling her eyes. Sam noticed that she was wearing a large pair of lab goggles over her glasses. "I wonder what would happen if I shot you in the face, Tank."

"Arad."

"Yes, Kate?"

"Don't provoke the giant robot," the older girl informed her friend in a thoroughly tired voice. "Especially when I happen to be sitting on said robot."

"Fuh - ine," Arad groaned, causing the word to have two syllables. She shoved the clipboard inside of her coat and hefted the chalk-gun onto her shoulder in anticipation of returning to the garage.

At that moment, however, a plane flew past overhead at a much faster pace than a normal commercial airliner, drawing the girl's attention skyward. She craned her head back, then toppled over backwards as the weight of her home-made cannon caused gravity to overturn her balance.

"Ow."

"How much sugar has she had today?" Sam inquired of Kate as she clambered down from Tank's shoulder. The girl shrugged, tugging her friend up by the collar of her oversized lab coat.

"Zoning out isn't going to help things," she informed Arad, who was still staring skyward. Kate waved a hand in front of the girl's goggles. "Hello, Earth to Arad, wake up!"

_Wake up, it's time to go, you better leave now, wake up!_

Kate glanced at Bumblebee to see that the yellow mech was also looking skyward, gaze focused on the dot approaching the horizon. A glance to her left told her that Tank was watching the sky as well, and Sam was standing there with chalk still in his hair looking just as confused as she felt.

"Kate?"

"Yes?"

"Just to reiterate a few things that I already know," Arad murmured, leaning down to pick up her chalk gun. "One of which being that the Hernando County Airport has no fighter jets, the other being that MacDill never does drills that extend this far north."

"True, true," Kate muttered, twirling a strand of hair through her fingers, a worried expression on her face. "Why?"

"Because unless I was sorely mistaken, that was an F-22."

"F-22?" Sam echoed, looking slightly mortified.

"Isn't the Air Show this week?" Kate asked, pulling the chalk gun out of Arad's grip with relative ease. She stumbled slightly, more out of surprise for how much it weighed than of the weigh itself. "Geez, what is this made of? Lead?"

"Steel and titanium poly-mesh," Arad murmured in reply, digging through her pockets with a sudden fervor. There seemed to be several dozen hidey-holes within her lab coat alone.

"Poly-what?"

"Plastic, polyester, like your shirt."

"My shirt is not polyester, it's satin!"

"If it was made in any of the countries in southern Asia, then its at least seventy-five percent polyester," Arad informed her, glancing over her shoulder. "Uh, why do you look freaked out?"

"You said it was an F-22, right?" Sam asked, waving a hand in the direction the plane had disappeared. "You are absolutely one hundred percent positively sure, that it was an F-22?"

"Flying near the upper limit of the speed that such a plane can take, yes."

"Not even going to ask how you know that," Sam said, turning to Bumblebee. "So what, should we try and tell the others or-"

"Hold the phone, what's so freaky about an F-22?" Kate interrupted, setting the chalk gun on a nearby rock. "There's an Air Show this week, they could be flying it down to MacDill for the fest."

"Are there normally those type of planes at this Air Show?"

"No, but they're always introducing new stuff," Kate said with a shrug, brushing chalk off her jeans. "Last year they brought a stealth bomber and you still haven't answered my question."

"_Starscream_," Tank answered before Sam could say anything. He pronounced the name like a swear word, biting off the syllables as if the very name itself was an insult to spoken language. "Slag-faced bastard."

Arad let out a long whistle, possibly in appreciation of the insult.

"You might want to revise that statement," she advised with a nod. "See, the word 'bastard' implies that he's got biological parents. It'd be better to use something like 'pissant' or 'asshole' when applying such a description."

"Noted."

"So this Starscream's a bad guy?" Kate asked, look at Bumblebee, who nodded vigorously in response. "And he's headed for MacDill, which is going to be crowded with civilians for the next three days."

She paused, considering the situation.

"But he's alone, how much damage could he do?"

* * *

Starscream had not been intending to return so soon to that water-logged mud-ball of a planet called Earth. His initial plan had been to retrieve the _Nemesis_ but upon reaching the ship he'd found a message waiting on the main computer from one of the few groups of Decepticon scouts that had gone off searching for their now fallen master. The message was from Scythe, one of the more intelligent lackeys but also one with an unwavering loyalty towards Megatron.

A scientist of sorts, Scythe had always made the impression of with-holding vital information until just the right moment. As was true with the message, for it merely stated that a group of Decepticons was on their way to this solar system to 'help' those who had been aboard the _Nemesis_, and that Scythe himself had made discovery pertaining to the location of the Allspark.

Starscream had laughed at that notion, knowing full well that the Allspark had been destroyed along with Megatron; the work of one of those flesh-bag humans.

Then he noticed the date attached to the message, and fled the ship, cursing all the way back to Earth.

Now, flying through the atmosphere at a steadily descending angle, he was counting the number of reasons why he hated precipitation. Above the lower edge of one of the continents there was far more of it than he liked, bunched together within billowing clouds. It was distracting, and the constant flashes of electricity between the clouds themselves were even more annoying.

He dropped lower, attempting to break out below the cloud cover.

This proved to be a mistake.

* * *

Lightning flashed through the sky, putting on an abstract display against the clouds. It was followed quickly by the customary stomach churning roar of thunder. There was a snap of static electricity as another flash followed the first, with a higher decibel mark for the accompanied rumble.

"What are the chances of him getting hit by lightning?" Arad inquired, gazing at the storm clouds on the horizon.

"Very high," Tank replied, shaking his foot as he stood up to rid it of gravel. "But it would not cause any damage unless he was flying directly through the clouds, and even then it would have to be a direct hit."

"One can hope."

There was another rumble, closer to the ground and decidedly not thunder. It was the sound of a large diesel engine muffled by dense foliage and coming closer with each passing second. The group turned as one to watch the parade come rolling in, lead by the flame decaled Peterbilt that was Optimus Prime.

"Holy crap," Arad cried, drawing Sam's brief attention.

"What?"

"Nothing, I just felt like saying it."

"Stop doing that!!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer :** Still do not own Transformers, however I did find some nifty birthday party stuff that I really want. Too bad its not my birthday. Kate, Arad, Tank, and co. own themselves.

**Reviews :**

CrazyWomen200253204 - Playful bickering is always fun, glad you like Kate and Arad. Glad you like the story too.

Fire From Above - YAY!! More Starscream in the chapter after this one, maybe. I might reveal his dastardly plan, I might not. All depends on whether or not my muses cooperate.

Riana1 - If that's your subtle way at hinting said characters should be introduced into the story, I may take you up on at least one or two of them. Tee-hee-hee.

Kiseki no Tenshi - Sorry to keep you waiting to read more. This chapter took me longer than usual, but hopefully the next one won't.

**Note : **And in this chapter we find out what this story shall be a crossover with, finally. My back hurts right now and its well past midnight. I need sleep.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Six

Arad and Kate stood in relative awe as the new arrivals transformed, with the former being slightly more pronounced in her actions. Craning her head back to stare up at the tallest of the mechs, she managed to keep her balance whilst giving voice to the one word that explained the situation quite succinctly.

"Wow."

Kate elbowed Arad in the ribs, muttering under her breath.

"You've said that three times already."  
"Wow."

"Stop it."

"Wow."

"Seriously," Kate hissed, poking her friend's shoulder. "It's not funny."

"Wo-OWW!!"

Arad stumbled off to the left, clutching her shin as rather painful expression took over her face.

"Holy-zombie-ninja-Jesus-fucking-Christ-on-crack!!" she hissed, hopping around on one foot. "That hurt!!"

"Oh, come on. I didn't kick you that hard."

"You cracked my shin!!"

Kate rolled her eyes and turned back to the group, half of whom looked slightly alarmed. The other half, having been witnessed to a few of Arad's antics, had adapted to her exaggerated display of pain quite quickly. Tank even looked as if he were trying not to laugh out loud, his shoulders shaking from the strain of it. Out of her peripheral, Kate noted that her blonde friend had finally fallen over, still groaning about her leg.

"She would have gone on for another twenty minutes," she explained to those who were staring at her with a wary eye. "I'm just saving time."

"But was injuring your friend really necessary?" inquired the robot who had, just a few moments before, been a green Hummer of the type used by EMS teams in less flat terrain. He was staring at Arad, who was now trying to roll up the right leg of her jeans in order to inspect for possible bleeding. She was muttering things under her breath in a whiny sort of way and appeared to have forgotten all about the current company. "She appears to have endured several similar injuries recently."

"What?"

"She has sustained contusions on her arms and legs prior to you kicking her."

"What?"

"I've got bruises," Arad clarified without looking up. "Most of them are from climbing down that damn hole, thank-you-very-much."

"Oh."

"You know," Sam started to say, addressing Arad as the girl climbed back to her feet. "You don't really make the best of first impressions."

"The hazards of being me," she responded, spinning about to face the group, injury forgotten. "Hello, I'm Arad, I spoke with one of you on the phone yesterday."

"Correct," the tallest of them agreed, kneeling down slightly to stare at her. "I am Optimus Prime."

"Cool name."

"Thank you."

"That's all you can say, 'cool name'?" Kate hissed from over her friends shoulder. She flicked Arad in the back of the head, then stepped around her to look up at Optimus. "Hi, I'm Kate. I make sure that Arad doesn't kill herself, or anyone else for that matter."

"I see," Optimus said, glancing at the blonde with some concern. "Do such situations occur frequently?"

"More so, as of late."

"I haven't killed anyone -- yet," Arad protested, pausing just half a beat before adding the last word. "Video game bad guys don't count, do they?"

Her comments went largely ignored, mostly due to the fact that the introductions had continued, but also because she was muttering in the direction of a nearby orange tree. She realized that no one was paying attention a few seconds later, twirling to catch the name of the other massive-pick-up-truck-turned-robot.

"-is Ironhide, our weapon's specialist."

On cue, the jet black mech pulled out his cannons, which did not earn the slightly fearful looks he'd been hoping for. Instead, Kate's face broke into a slightly maniacal grin whilst Arad simply furrowed her brow in contemplation. Slightly disheartened, Ironhide quickly put the guns away and turned his attention towards Tank.

"What took you so long you clumsy-"

"I am not clumsy," Tank protested with a growl, looking positively displeased at the notion.

"You are too," Sam said, with some incredulousness thrown into his tone partially due to surprise that the red mech was denying his accidental destruction of public property charges. "You knocked down a telephone tower and stepped on a truck."

"I feel short."

Everyone looked at Arad.

"That really isn't that funny," Sam informed her, shaking his head. "Way to kill the drama."

"What drama? I see no drama in this scene," she replied in almost hyperactive haste. "All I see are some bad ass alien robots taller than my house arguing over who's clumsier, where-as I am forced to stand on my toes to reach the microwave."

She paused, blowing a puff of air out of her mouth in a futile attempt to remove a strand of hair from its position of annoyance on her nose. It didn't work, so she was forced to actually flick the offending follicles with her fingers, which subsequently caused her glasses to slide sideways. She fixed this, but not before losing her train of thought to the thunder that was wreaking havoc with the sky.

"It's going to rain."

With that parting remark, she spun on her heels and started back towards the house.

"Where is she going?" Sam asked of Kate, who shrugged in response. His frowned deepened as he turned his attention to the brown haired girl who had taken down her pigtails and was now in the process of braiding her hair. "Why're you doing that?"

Kate sighed and tied off the end of the braid pre-maturely, then turned her attention towards the group.

"Look, I'm not trying to be rude or anything," she began to explain, pulling an orange scrunchy from her pocket. "But you're probably going to start talking about the technical aspects of that cube thing, correct."

"Yes," Ratchet answered, tilting his head. "Why?"

"My best friend's a mad scientist. The minute anyone starts talking about anything more complicated than a toaster, I tend to zone out."

"Zone out?" Ironhide echoed, sounding slightly confused at the terminology.

"What's a toaster?" Tank asked almost simultaneously; Kate was spared explaining by the return of Arad, who reappeared dragging a large black metal trunk. "What is that?"

"A tent."

"A tent?" Sam repeated, eyes widening. "What kind of tent?"

"A circus tent."

"Why do you have a circus tent?"

"Well, I bought it on E-bay on the off-chance that I'd be hosting a brainstorming party on my front lawn with a group of giant alien robots," she responded, kicking open the lid. "You know, just in case it rained."

"Why are you worried about the rain?" Ironhide inquired as the blonde began digging through the sheets of thick multicolored fabric in the trunk. "It does not normally present a problem."

Arad stopped, pulling out a device from the folds of the tent and spinning to face the scowling jet black mech.

"You've spent most of your time on this planet in Nevada," she stated, manipulating a few dials on the square remote. "The paltry amount of precipitation that falls in that state is a leaky faucet compared to the typhoon-monsoon-hurricane conglomerate that is rain here in Florida."

Within the trunk, the tent began to move and unfold itself in a most gangly fashion, due in part to some mechanism that she'd installed in the struts upon its delivery to her house.

"We'll be lucky if it doesn't flood."

* * *

True to Arad's predictions, no sooner was the tent set up did the rain come pouring by the bucket load from the sky. It pounded against the thick canvas walls with a roaring fury, completely soaking everything, including the ground beneath the tent itself. Whilst sitting in the muck was quite uncomfortable for everyone, it was better than sitting in the muck and the stinging maelstrom of water outside. The tent itself wasn't one of those three-ring sized ones, but it was big enough for everyone to sit in without much frustration.

Once all were situated, Bumblebee produced the cube and handed it over to Optimus, who took it without a word.

"Strange," he murmured, after about a minute's worth of inspection. "If one were to rely on initial appearance and inspection alone, I would say that this is the Allspark."

"But it's not, right?" Sam asked, looking worried.

Optimus shook his head.

"No, it is not. The energy it contains, however, is similar, but limited."

"So it's a fake," Arad pointed out from her perch on Tank's left shoulder. She'd climbed up there to escape the mud, despite his protests and was now retying the laces of her boots. "A replica."

"Yes," Optimus agreed, passing the cube to Ratchet who took it with a frown.

"How though?" the medical officer inquired, turning it over in his hands. "I doubt even our own scientist could create such a replica."

"A better question would be why. Why would anyone build a replica of the Allspark?"

"Oh, that's an easy one," Arad said, pulling a roll of duct tape from her pocket. She tore off two strips and applied them to her left pant leg to make a crude 'x' mark.

"What's an easy one?" Ironhide inquired, frowning at her as she returned the tape to her pocket.

"Well, think about it," she replied, looking over at him. "What do you do if you want to steal something but don't want anyone to know you stole it?"

"I wouldn't steal anything in the first place," he replied in rather indignant tones.

"It's a hypothetical question, no need to grump."

"I wasn't grumping."

"You were too," she argued, crinkling her nose. "You get the same look that Tank does, and he's always grumping."

"I am not!!" Tank protested, shifting his shoulders back slightly only to remember a second later that both Arad and Kate were sitting there. The blonde nearly fell off, but Kate kept her balance, merely leaning sideways in order to keep from slipping. Fortunately, Tank was able to catch Arad before she hit the mud, holding her up to eye level by her ankle. "Are you all right?"

"I'm upside down," she muttered. "Of course I'm not alright!!"  
This brought a round of laughter, as Tank had set her down and she straightened her clothes. It ended only when she began to look particularly irritated.

"As I was saying…"

"Do continue," Ratchet encouraged her, nodding as he turned the cube over in his hands. She looked at him, folding her arms across her chest and tapping her foot. "Please."

"That's better," Arad murmured, before continuing on in a louder voice. "As we've confirmed that the cube is a fake and as far as you know the original was destroyed, right?"

"Correct."

"What if the one you thought was the original was actually a fake too?"

"Hmm," Optimus mused, looking at the roof of the tent. It was sagging slightly under the weight of accumulated rain water. "We did not have time to inspect it as we have this one, and I must confess that the very idea of it being a replica never crossed my mind. It is not a pleasant thought."

"That does not explain why there are seven other signals like the one this gave off littered around this galaxy," Ratchet pointed out, holding handing the replica off to Ironhide. "If indeed your theory is correct, then why are there so many? Wouldn't a thief have simply stopped at just one?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because if you flood the market with fakes then the less of a chance of you getting caught with the original," Arad replied, pulling out a small, fun-size package of M&Ms from one of her pockets. "So maybe whoever stole it knew that someone would come looking for it eventually, so in order to buy time planted a bunch of the things so as to cause confusion and mayhem."

"Okay, wait a second," Sam broke in as Arad took a moment to rip open the small bag of candy. "You're saying that someone took the real Allspark and left a bunch of copies lying around so that it couldn't be found?"

"Yes."

She selected a blue coated chocolate and popped it in her mouth.

"You realize that it's been here on this planet for the past ten thousand years, right?"

A red chocolate followed suit.

"So?"

Green.

"And that Megatron was frozen in the Arctic for like almost the same amount of time?"

Orange.

"Your point?"

Sam stared at her for a moment, watching as she downed a yellow M&M, resisting the urge to strangle her. He glanced up at Optimus.

"A little help?"

"I believe she is implying that another, more advanced alien race visited this planet between the time of the Allspark's arrival and Sector Seven's discovery of it," the flame-decaled mech said, tone implying that he was considering the possibility. "It is not improbable."

"Not improbable? Are you kidding me? What alien race besides you guys could have done it!?"

"Yet another question that would be relatively easy to answer if only the US Government wasn't so damn picky about security clearances," Arad muttered, dumping the rest of the M&Ms in her mouth. She failed to notice Kate climb down from Tank's other shoulder, or the few seconds that followed in which her friend retrieved the duct tape from her coat pocket. She only noticed when the now braided-pig-tailed girl attempted to place a strip of the silver adhesive paper over her mouth. "HEY!!"

"You are not going to go ranting about your stupid conspiracies again," Kate informed her, brandishing the duct tape. "No one wants to hear about what you've read in the tabloids or found on some obscure website or seen on the sci-fi channel."

Arad batted at the tape, ducking away to hide behind Bumblebee's arm. Kate circled around the other way, but was prevented from enacting her tape related preventative measures by Ironhide. The black mech picked her up by the collar of her shirt.

"Drop the tape."

"What, no!!" Kate protested, attempting to kick him but only managing to get herself lifted higher and out of range of anything kickable. "Come on, put me down!!"

"Drop the tape."

"You seriously want to listen to her rant about stargates and snake people!?"

"Drop the tape."

"F-I-N-E!!" Kate grumbled, tossing the roll of duct tape on the ground. The small strip she'd torn off, however, proved slightly more difficult to remove. It stuck to her fingers and only after a minute of flicking her hand about in the air did it come off, only to stick to a panel on Ironhide's leg. Grumbling in annoyance, he set the girl back down in order to scrape it off. The minute her feet hit the floor, she snatched the roll back up and went running after Arad. The blonde let out a shriek and scrambled up Bumblebee's arm, trying to escape.

"Enough," Optimus commanded, half-heartedly however because there was something amusing in watching the scene. But there were other things to consider at the moment, and this distraction was not helping. "Kate, put the tape down."

"Oh, alright," Kate muttered, tossing the roll aside. "But I am so not going to listen to her talking about wormholes and secret government programs for the next hour."

"I am sure you are exaggerating."

"I am sure I'm not."

With that remark, Kate ducked out of the tent and into the rain, which had let up considerably since its initial torrential-ness and thus leaving the Autobots to the whim of Arad's conspiracy theories.

* * *

No sooner had Kate kicked open the door to the house did the phone begin ringing. Feeling slightly devious, she walked over to the nearest receiver and picked it up, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"Dominoes, would you like to try our five-five-five deal?"

((Very funny, where's Arad?))

"She's discussing tabloid articles with a bunch of giant alien robots," Kate answered truthfully, leaning against the back of the couch. "Why?"

((Because there's a Delorean parked in my backyard and I think it's possessed.))

"A Delorean?"

((Yeah.))

"Like 'Back to the Future' style Delorean?"

((Exactly.))

"And you think it's possessed?"

((Yes, it most definitely is.))

"How so?"

((Well, there's no key in the ignition, but every time I look out the window the blinkers are going and just five minutes ago it started playing the chorus from 'Save Me' by Shinedown on the radio.))

"Oh."

Kate glanced out the window, frowning.

((I stole some holy water from the church down the street and threw it on the windshield, but it didn't work. Should I call the Vatican?))

"I'm just going on a hunch here, but am I talking to Pinky?" Kate inquired, frowning as she recalled Arad's descriptions of various other high school friends. "The one who lives down the street from Four Corners?"

((Yes.))

"Ah."

((Why?))

"No particular reason. I'm Kate."

((The artist who draws all those awesome pictures of Edward Elric!?))

"Yes."

((Ah.))

"Why?

((No particular reason, just I've got you one my watch list on that one website with all the shiny artwork.))

"Oh," Kate murmured, looking at the ceiling. There were a few cobwebs in the corner where the speakers for the living room surround sound system were hooked up. "I think we got slightly side-tracked in this conversation. Have you asked the car its name?"

((No, should I have?))

"It might be a good idea."

((Okay, hold on.))

The sound of the phone being set aside could be heard over the line, and Kate took advantage of the moment to fetch a soda from the fridge. Upon returning she found that Pinky hadn't picked back up yet, but did not have to wait very long for a shrill cry to blast through the speaker.

((AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! IT TALKED!!))

"Calm down!!"

((AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!))

"Shut up!!"

((Okay.))

A normal person would have been quite flustered by the suddenness of the cessation of noise. However, Kate was well-practiced in dealing with Arad's insanity, thus allowing for a bit of a buffer in dealing with Pinky's own brand of looney-ness.

"What'd the car say?"

((He said his name is Wrench, that he's stuck and can't move, and that he needs to warn some peoples who are called the auto-somethings that someone bad has made something bad happen, and please, please, please, please, pretty please, could they bring a ratchet along.))

"You are really bad at relaying information, you know that?"

((I'm aware of that particular flaw, yes.))

"I'll have Arad call you back as soon as possible, okay?"

((Alrighty then.))

Sighing, Kate hung up the phone and prepared herself for the short run through the rain. The distance between the front door and the tent wasn't that far, but the rain had started up harder again and she was bound to get soaked in the process. Grumbling, she kicked open the door and headed out.

* * *

"So you're saying that there is a secret program run by the United States Air Force called 'Stargate', and that teams of people have been using some ancient alien device to travel to other planets in the galaxy for the past ten years?" Sam summarized, staring at Arad in disbelief. The blonde hand taken a new perch on Bumblebee's shoulder and was playing with the yellow mech's antennae. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"Stupider than giant alien robots that turn into cars?"

"Well, no," Sam admitted, heaving a sigh. "But seriously, if the government had a program like that then why hasn't there been anything reversed engineered from the technology they've brought back? At least with Sector Seven they got microchips and stuff like that from studying Megatron."

"Also, why have we not detected these so-called ships you claim this program utilizes?" Ratchet added. "From your descriptions it seems that they would be sophisticated enough to appear on our sensors as, at very least, a sizable object."

"I don't know, maybe they got their hands on something that keeps them off the radar," Arad said, shrugging her shoulders. "I know from the stuff I gleaned off that one guy's laptop that there're ships out there with cloaking devices."

"Still, why wouldn't they bring any of that stuff into the fight at Mission City? Those F-302 things sound like they could've given Starscream a run for his money."

"I seriously doubt that," Ironhide snorted. "Starscream is not so easily killable. He's like your earth cockroaches."

"Still, why wouldn't the military throw the best they've got: because it's not real!"

"Or maybe there's a bigger threat out there that they're trying to deal with and they figured that you had it handled," Arad snapped, looking slightly annoyed that her theory wasn't going over well.

"I wouldn't disregard it," Optimus stated, looking thoughtful. "After all, your government seems to have a fondness for secret programs. Sector Seven appeared to have been created to deal with the threat our kind may have posed against your planet, regardless of creed. It is not that far-fetched to think that yet another group was created to deal with other alien species. I would not be surprised if what she says is true."

"So you believe her?"

"I am not ruling it out."

"You're getting pretty good at using slang, you know that?"

"It's called turns-of-phrase, dork," Kate corrected from the tent flap, looking soaked and thoroughly pissed off. "And we have a bit of a problem."

"What sort of a problem?" inquired Ratchet, peering down at her as she attempted to wring out her hair.

"He say's his name's Wrench."

"You are correct, that is a problem."

"So you do know him," Kate said, twisting the hem of her shirt to get the water out. "Well, that's a relief."

"Where is he?" Optimus inquired, frowning. "He has not attempted to contact us."

"Well, that's probably because he's stuck in Pinky's backyard and terribly embarrassed about it."

"Pinky?" Arad echoed, eyes widening. "Aw crap."

"What's that mean?" Sam asked, looking over at her with some apprehension. "Why'd you say that?"

"Let's get something straight, okay," She answered, suddenly looking serious. "I'm insane, that's a given. You can't be a mad scientist without the 'mad' part, it's a prerequisite."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Pinky is insane, and I'm not talking about my kind of insane. Most crazy people have to be forcibly thrown into a padded room. Pinky bought herself a straightjacket and had her bedroom walls padded by a custom installation specialist."

"Oh."


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer :** Still don't own the Transformers. Kate, Arad, Pinky, Tank, and Wrench own themselves, barely.

**Reviews :**

Fae Child19 - It starts out just with SG-1, but I have it planned so that it will eventually tie into Atlantis. Glad you like Arad, seeing as she's technically me.

SomeReallyRandomPerson - Love the name. Yes, this fic, like real life, is full of crazy people.

Chibi Yoshi - Yesh, Stargate is the most awesome show ever and now, combined with the best fecking movie ever, they shall take over the universe...erm...um...or simply cause much mayhem in the universe.

Fire From Above - Stargate, like Transformers, is one of those things that have consumed my life. I couldn't not do a crossover. I have a plan of sorts that concerns a certain race from the show known as the Ancients and the origins of the Transformers themselves. Tis very complicated and causes much conflict in my brain.

Primefan - Teehee, puns. I've toned Pinky down a lot, because I kind of don't want to spend to much time due to raging plot bunnies that won't stop stalking me. I must apologize to her for limiting her involvement to a cameo, because originally this fic was only to have Kate and Arad as the only crazy insane girls to be mentioned. Pinky will probably end up showing up in later chapters at random.

Riana1 - You'll have to wait on the Pinky and the Brain related humor. Plot bunnies rage at me to get to the point of the story before I get writer's block. Pinky'll probably show up later in the story again.

Gaara's Pro RACOON - Okay.

blood shifter - Its insane, of course it'll be good.

**Note :** I apologize P-Chan13, for I must limit your cameo time for now. As mentioned above, the plot bunnies are planning to steal my chocolate if I don't proceed to the actual point of the story by at least chapter ten. This, unfortunately limits the amount of time I can spend on your character, but don't worry you shall have more time later on to fully show off your insane-ness. Until then, the story must move along.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Seven

A plan was made, revised, edited, and argued over for approximately fifteen minutes. The discussion ended only when the tent collapsed, causing a general downfall in everyone's mood as they attempted to disentangle themselves from the canvas. Arad, being the smallest and least likely to be squished, managed to escape through a convenient hole one of the struts had ripped in the wall during the collapse. She took the time to survey the mess, slightly dismayed that her handiwork had been destroyed so easily by something as common as the weather.

Sighing, she made her way around the side of the house to the aluminum awning where her father kept various lawn related machinery. Along the wall sat one and a half riding mowers, a broken weed-wacker, and a large pallet full of bricks. Taking up most of the space, however, was a tow trailer on loan from her uncle. The fact that there was a car already parked on it did not phase her one bit; she simply walked around and pulled down the trailer's back gate. Climbing up, she quickly circled back up front and opened up the car's driver side door. Inspecting the lack of the interior, she quickly found the brake release lever and proceeded to roll the car off the trailer and into the backyard.

This task finished, she returned to the trailer and locked the gates back in place.

"What are you doing?"

Looking up, she spotted Tank glaring at her from around the side of the house.

"Getting the trailer ready," she informed him, kicking loose the bricks that kept said trailer from rolling off. "Duh."

"Why?"

"Well, how else are we going to get Wrench from out of Pinky's backyard without arousing suspicions from the neighbors?" she asked, grabbing up the front hooks in a futile attempt to pull the trailer with her. "You can't very well go stomping through Spring Hill, there'll be pandemonium."

She paused, both in speech and in her actions.

"Actually, that'd be rather funny to see."

She appeared to be picturing the scene in her mind, losing mental focus with each imaginary panicked citizen running about her head.

"Move," Tank grumbled impatiently, poking her shoulder.

"What?"

"Move, please."

Arad blinked, slightly shocked.

"What?"

"You said 'please'!" she cried, scrambling out of the way. "You said 'please'!"

"So?"

"It means you're not as rude as I originally thought you were."

Shaking his head, Tank reached under the awning and pulled the trailer out, proceeding to drag it back up front where the others were waiting. Arad followed, shuffling over to Kate to whisper about Tank's newfound manners in her friend's ear.

"He said what?" Kate gasped, eyes widening in an exaggerated manner. "Wow, that's amazing."

"Isn't it though?"

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Tank asked, interrupting as he tapped the side of the trailer in annoyance. Arad sighed, throwing her hands in the air before walking over.

"Why do I get stuck going off with you again?"

"You are the only one who knows where this 'Pinky' lives," Ratchet answered, watching as the girl took the tow chains from Tank. "That and I do not believe there would be much use for your chalk gun should there be a battle."

"You never know, it might come in handy."

"It would cause mild irritation in whoever you shot with it, but I doubt it would do any lasting damage."

"So?" Arad asked, sticking out her bottom lip in a pouting expression. "What about Kate? All she knows is karate, I doubt that's gonna be useful against that flying hunk of tin."

She paused briefly.

"No offense Kate."

"None taken," the other girl replied. "Besides, who needs karate when I've got a DMK."

"What is a DMK?" Ironhide inquired with a frown, kicking the remains of the tent aside.

"De-Molecularizing Katana."

This caused some startled looks amongst the Autobots, mainly due to the fact that they hadn't exactly suspected such technology to exist on this particular planet. That there was a short pause while they collectively looked up the term 'katana' was not noticed by the humans present.

"You possess a De-Molecularizing Katana?" Ironhide repeated, staring at her.

"Yes."

"How?"

"Well, I took apart this box thing that Arad had in the garage and-"

"YOU WHAT!?"

"You weren't using it," Kate protested, as her friend advanced, looking as angry as is possible for a skinny blonde girl to be. "It was getting all dusty."

"You took apart my Molecular Destabilizing Chamber to build a stupid sword!" Arad cried, eyebrow twitching. "Are you insane!?"

Kate stared at her, considering the question and all possible sarcastic retorts. After a brief moment, she decided that now was probably not the best of times for witty quips about her friends own questionable mental state.

"Um, yes?"

"Do you realize that if that thing isn't installed properly it could…it could…"

As it was apparent that Arad was unable to finish the sentence, Sam tried to help.

"It could blow up?" he asked hesitantly, as this was probably the most likely of bad circumstances. He was hoping against hope that she wouldn't start shrieking at him too.

"No, it could reverse itself and generate a de-molecularizing field extending around the wielder and possibly even farther than that," Ratchet explained, as Arad appeared too pissed to put together a coherent sentence. "As such a device requires a constant access with z-space, if given a sufficient supply of energy, it could cause the magnetic field of the planet to collapse."

"Oh," Sam said, gaping slightly. "That's bad."

"Yes," Optimus agreed, nodding. "Yes, it is."

"Oh please," Kate scoffed, rolling her eyes. "That's so overly dramatic. What, you think I didn't test it out to make sure it worked?"

"You tested it?"

Kate nodded vigorously.

"On what?"

"The Neon," Kate answered, staring down at her orange painted nails. "It kind of destroyed the engine, but I was able to save the transmission."

"I don't think destroying your car counts as a field test, Kate."

"I don't think a Neon even counts as a car," Sam added, absently scratching his ear. "I mean, its a-"

"Dipshit Dodge."

"What!?"

"It's called alliteration, when you take two words that begin with the same letter and string them together in a statement," Arad explained, frown receding. "And as Dodge begins with the letter 'D' one must assign it an adjective beginning with that letter, preferably one that describes the quality of the brand. Thus you have, 'Dipshit Dodge'."

Sam gaped at her, then turned towards Bumblebee.

"Can we please get out of here before she explains something else?"

The yellow mech blinked, then shrugged, shifting swiftly into car form and popping open the door for Sam to climb in. Arad watched in annoyance, then took a deep steadying breath before turning around to face Tank.

"Come on, let's go before any more of my inventions get abused," she muttered, shoulders sagging. Chuckling, he shifted into truck form, his laughter earning himself a kick in the bumper as she proceeded to hook up the trailer. She ignored him for the most part and everyone else for that matter, focusing on correctly attaching the chains, though she did manage to kick one of his wheels before climbing in the passenger side door. "Jerk."

* * *

"Your friend is odd," Ironhide remarked, having gotten over his initial annoyance at Kate, who had insisted on riding with him. They were now on the highway, keeping a lookout for anything suspicious as they headed south towards MacDill Airforce Base. Bumblebee in the lane ahead of him, blasting various tunes on the stereo at a volume that was evidently not tolerable judging by the various looks he was being thrown by other drivers. Optimus drove behind them all, scanning for any sign of Starscream. "Humans altogether are strange, but she is odd even by human standards." 

"Of course she is," Kate replied, rummaging through her purse. "She's a genius."

"I don't see what her intelligence level has to do with anything."

"Well of course you don't, you only just met her today," Kate murmured, pulling out a pair of chopsticks. "Arad is only insane because she's so smart. You've caught her on the lighter end of her brainstorming cycle, usually she's a lot worse."

"How much worse?"

"Remember how I was telling Optimus that it's my job's to make sure she doesn't kill herself or anyone else?"

"Yes."

"About two months ago she got it in her head to build an electron collider so she could create her own antimatter."

"Why would she want to create her own antimatter?" Ironhide inquired, before realizing that he probably didn't want to know the answer.

"Something about wanting to know if a gram of it could actually blow up the Vatican. The important thing to note is that she only managed to make a milligram."

"Only?" Ironhide echoed. "That amount alone would have a yield sufficient enough to cause damage within a one point five kilometer radius."

"Yeah, I know."

"You know?"

"It's the reason why I'm no longer allowed to own a boat," Kate muttered, glaring out the window at a passing burnt orange Dodge Charger. "We had to get rid of it real fast when the container she to hold it started to disintegrate, so we shipped out into the gulf and dumped it overboard. In retrospect, it wasn't that brilliant of a plan especially since she insisted on sticking around to monitor what happened."

"What happened?"

"You know how light bulbs always burn brightest when they're about to burn out?"

Ironhide considered this remark, having been witnessed to one such light bulb related incident at the home of one Captain William Lennox. The lamp in question had been attached to the work bench with the garage of the Lennox household, and the Captain had been sitting there attempting to fix a broken doorknob. Lennox had reacted rather badly when the bulb practically exploded over his head, the man letting out a string of curses that had fortunately gone on unheard by his wife. It had been a moment of great amusement.

"Yes," he finally answered.

"It was like that only about a million times brighter, spewing water everywhere. We got caught in the surge, carried all the way back to shore and nearly smashed to pieces on the rocks!! And all because-HOLY SHIT!!"

Ironhide slammed on his brakes, screeching to a halt just four centimeters from Bumblebee's bumper. Behind him, Optimus did the same but the bigger truck was forced to swerve onto the median to avoid hitting the black pick-up. The cause of this: the Dodge Charger that had roared past a few moments earlier had attempted to change lanes by squeezing through a gap between two Wal-Mart Semi-Trailers only to clip the backend of a Mitsubishi Eclipse in the left lane ahead. The Eclipse had spun out; forcing the semi's to apply the brakes lest they run the smaller vehicle down. One had jack-knifed, slamming into the other and now there were boxes marked 'Halo3' all over the roadway.

A burning wheel rolled away from the scene, as per the laws of physics.

Beyond the wreck, the Charger idled for a moment, as if considering the scene then took off in a roar, tires squealing. There, on the back end, instead of the usual Dodge sigil was the Decepticon emblem, standing out noticeably against the orange paint.

"Did you see that!?" Sam yelled, having jumped from his seat to run back towards Ironhide and Optimus. "Did-"

"Yes, Sam," Optimus rumbled, edging back onto the road next to Ironhide. "It seems that Starscream was able to find re-enforcements."

* * *

Pinky was sitting on a lawn chair in her driveway, a neon green and orange striped umbrella duct-taped to the back. With a pair of large cat-eyed sunglasses, a shirt that declared her a 'crazed otaku' and a pair of foam flip-flops, she appeared to be right at home in the humidity. She even had a large Busch Gardens souvenir cup sitting on the concrete next to the chair, collecting condensation. As Arad clambered out of the red Silverado and stomped over, she absently turned the page of the Newtype Magazine in her lap. 

"Well?"

"He got snippy with me when I tried to rescue the other lawn chairs," Pinky murmured, not looking up. "So I stole my neighbor's pool tarp and put it over him."

Arad stared at her.

"That wasn't very nice."

"Well, he shouldn't have made fun of my hair."

Arad looked at Pinky's hair, which was evidently newly re-dyed into the constant bright pink state that had earned her the nickname. Deciding that it was best not to argue with her friend's method of punishment, she stuck her hands in her pockets.

"I'm going to have to take down a section of your fence."

"Okay dearie," Pinky agreed, nodding as she inspected the next page of her magazine. "Just watch out for Tequila, she's been hunting again."

Having been given the okay to desecrate half the backyard, Arad ran back to the truck.

"Who or what is Tequila?" Tank inquired as she retrieved her backpack from the backseat.

"Tequila is her cat."

"What's a cat?"

"A furry feline creature that is apparently smarter than you," Arad remarked, slamming the door shut before walking over to Ratchet, who was sitting by the curb a few feet away. "Okay, so the plan is: I'm gonna take the hinges of the gates as they don't swing wide enough to get a car through. I'll roll Wrench out here and onto the trailer. We'll go back to my house so you can fix him, ok?"

"No."

"No?"

Ratchet seemed to heave a sigh, one that sounded slightly irritated.

"I have sent a message to Optimus on Wrench's status, as I was able to scan him upon arriving here," he explained in an annoyed tone of voice, though Arad was able to note that the irritation was not aimed at her. "There is nothing wrong with him. He appears to be confused over the function of the 'emergency brake' and-"

"What? Are you telling me we drove all the way out hear because he doesn't know how to turn off the fucking emergency brake!?"

"I am as frustrated with this as you are."

"Like hell," Arad hissed, clenching her fists. "No one can be as frustrated as I can be."

With that remark, she thundered off towards the side gate, slamming it open and continuing onwards into the back. She didn't pause to announce her presence, simply ripped the tarp off then kicked the Delorean in the bumper.

"YOU IDIOT!!"

"What the-?" the car cried in response, startled at finding a skinny blonde human standing in front of him. "Who're you!?"

"I'm the girl who's forever going to berate you for not being able to figure out the damn emergency brake!!"

"What's that?"

Not answering, Arad circled around the side and yanked open the door before he could even think about locking them. Grumbling, she reached in and clicked the brake loose, then slammed the door and kicked him once more. There was silence as he contemplated what she had just done, running an internal systems diagnostic.

"Oh."

"OH!!" she shrieked, throwing her hands in the air. "OH, he says!! OH!! Now move it, Doc, before I get really pissed off!!"

"Doc?"

Arad ignored him, opting for fuming silence as she stalked back over to the gate to undo the hinges. Pulling a strange hook-like device from the recesses of her bag, the job was done quickly and efficiently. Wrench then rolled out from the backyard, hesitantly maneuvering around the glaring blonde girl. Once he was out, she replaced the gates and stuck her hooked device back into her bag before following him out to the street where Ratchet had gotten into a lecture about information retrieval and trans-scanning.

Normally, this would have been something of interest to Arad, but being in a foul mood killed any and all curiosity. She went over to Tank and climbed into the cab, buckling her seatbelt and pushing the button for the radio. Loud and angry rock music blared for ten seconds before Tank abruptly shut it off.

"I am not less intelligent than a cat."

"Tank, in case you haven't noticed, I'm angry right now."

"So?"

"So shut up and drive or I'll take you apart," she threatened in a hiss. "And don't tell me that I couldn't possibly do that because, trust me, I'll figure it out eventually. I'll wait till your sleeping."

_Ratchet?_

_Yes Tank?_

_She's threatening to kill me in recharge._

_Ignore her. _Ratchet sent back. _We have to go meet up with Optimus and the others. _

_Is she always that way?_

_Apparently Wrench. _Tank texted, managing to intone it as if he was muttering. _Apparently. _

* * *

Starscream slowly blinked his optics, slowly regaining the feeling in his sensors. As the numbness receded, he was able to gage his surroundings and discern that he was upside-down on what appeared to be a small human dwelling. A vague recollection of what had occurred before he'd blacked out coursed through his processors, the memory of a dozen and a half bolts of lightning hitting his wings. Groaning, he pushed himself off the house, noting that it appeared to have been dilapidated to begin with which explained why there were no annoying humans buzzing around. 

"What happened to you?"

Snapping his gaze to the left, Starscream spotted the owner of the voice standing a few meters away and felt an immediate annoyance. Of all the Decepticons in the universe, he had never been able to fathom why Scythe had insisted on having the reckless speed devil that was Blitz on his squad. The bot was annoying to the point that he'd been deliberately sent on several missions designed to get him blown into a thousand pieces, yet somehow he'd always managed to come back alive.

In retrospect, this knack for survival against all odds was probably the reason why the Decepticon medic kept the chaos loving mech around.

"Where is Scythe?"

"Said something about a signal in a place called Colorado," the burnt orange 'Con replied with a one-shouldered shrug. "Said I was to find you."

"Did he now?"

"You look like someone fired a plasma cannon at close range on your aft," Blitz commented with a grin. "What'd you do, fly through a thunderstorm?"

"Shut up."

"That's it, isn't it?"

"Shut up!"

"You got struck by lightning didn't you?"

"SHUT UP YOU INSUBORDINATE HUNK OF JUNK!!"

"Look who's talking," Blitz snorted, before being forced to dodge a blast from Starscream's rifle. "Missed me!"

"Next time I won't!"

"Uh huh," the younger mech said, rolling his optics before shifting swiftly into the alternate form he'd scanned upon landing on the planet. The orange Charger revved his engine menacingly. "I'd get out of here if I were you. Spotted some of the Autobots on the way over here and while they may be delayed by some…roadway complications, I doubt you'd be able to take them on in your condition, you know, having been struck by lightning and all."

Starscream fired another shot at him as the Dodge sped off, missing yet again and cursing whoever had been mad enough to create such an annoying little mech.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer :** Don't own Transformers. All OCs own themselves.

**Reviews :**

Fire From Above - Glad you liked Wrench's confusion. I figured him to actually be rather smart when it comes to extremely complicated things, yet utterly confounded by simple stuff.

IzzyIzzy - I'll look into your story. Glad you like mine!

Dark Predator Dragon - I just saw it on IMax too, the MOSI Dome Theater to be precise. Twas awesome-ness incarnate. The group should meet the SGC staff or at least a member of SG1 by at least Chapter Twelve, provided there are no more plot bunnies threatening to derail the stability of my brain. It'll be just after the end of Season Ten, and I plan to be having some fun with debriefings and a certain annoying Sector Seven agent.

Fae Child19 - Expect some 'General Lee' jokes when it comes to Blitz, as my dear friend Sam (not that Sam, different Sam) informed me that said Dodge Charger had better be that Dodge Charger on pain of death. And I found out the other day that there really is a Delorean in Hernando County. I saw it when I was driving to work.

Riana1 - Arad's entire posse consists not just of Kate and Pinky, but also of Jesus, Ren the Mermaid, the Grand Master of Skittles, three Shauns, two Sams, and a Beatrix. Unfortunately the only other people who might show up are Jesus and Beatrix because they're awesome like that. You're tempting me with the whole 'no way in hell can either of them ever meet Wheeljack' thing. I may have to disregard your warnings. I think Blitz is swiftly becoming my favorite too, despite the fact that he's a Dodge. And of course Wrench is an 80's fan, who isn't?

blood shifter - I feel sorry for Tank too, especially after what he does in this chapter because Arad is so going to get vengeance on his aft.

**Note : **Sorry for the delay, work has been evil towards me. Saw the movie in IMax with Kate, both of us wearing Bumblebee shirts of course. Got complimented for being Bumblebee fans and are going to edit some footage we have of the MOSI dome to make it look like Starscream is landing on top of it. In other news, I think I'm getting to be a little too fond of Cybertronian slang.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Eight

"This is taking forever."

"It's only been a twenty minutes," Sam remarked, not even bothering to glance over at Kate. She'd taken the time to re-do her hair back into pigtails, tying them off with some orange ribbon she'd found in the bottom of her purse. Five minutes ago her Gameboy had run out of battery power, delaying her task of rescuing Princess Zelda from the forces of evil. "And in case you didn't notice, they had to call in a helicopter for the guy in the Mitsubishi."

"Mhmm, Bayflight," Kate murmured, chewing on one end of her hair ribbons. "I want to ride in a helicopter."

"Not in that one, you don't."

"Are you cranky or something?"

"Hmm, let me think about that," Sam muttered sarcastically. "Having just been witness to two Wal-Mart trucks jack-knifing on a highway where every other driver appears to have anger management problems, I would have to say: Yes, I am cranky. It doesn't help that my mom's going to kill me for sneaking off from the party."

"I doubt your mother will literally kill you, Sam," Ironhide muttered, having gotten over his initial annoyance at the two of them for using his truck bed as a perch.

"Yes, yes she will."

"I've got a question," Kate intoned, rifling through her purse once more.

"What?"

"So far, we've got two confirmed baddies here in Florida, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"How come they're here? Do they know about the fake Cube or did they decide to take a Vacation and we've just caught sight of them on their way to the beach at Fort DeSoto."

"Hmm," Ironhide rumbled, waiting a moment before relaying the answer. As he was the closest to the two humans at the moment, he was the only one who could safely speak to them without arousing the suspicions of the line of traffic behind them or the rescue workers ahead. "Optimus says it is a possibility that they know of the replica. The time frame in which Starscream fled and returned means he didn't go all the way back to Cybertron. So the other one must've been en route when he took off."

"You know who the other one is?" Sam asked, watching the gawkers rolling past in the north bound lane.

"No, though I suspect it may have been that reckless little punk, Blitz."

"Blitz?" Kate echoed, pulling a couple jolly ranchers out of one of the side pockets to her purse. "Sounds like a French dessert."

She held out a watermelon flavored candy towards Sam.

"Want one?"

"No thanks."

"Okay, suit yourself," she said with a shrug, popping an orange flavored one in her mouth. "Maybe we should just go around."

"Around what?"

"Around the wreck."

"If we do that, we'll get a ticket," Sam pointed out, leaning over the side to glance at the cop cars sitting on the median next to one of the overturned semi's. The officers in question were simply mulling around, as there wasn't much to do until the equipment truck arrived with the tools needed to move the other semi out of the roadway. All of the patrol vehicles were half pale tan, half black, and not in the least bit frightening compared to a certain cop car that occasionally showed its face in nightmares. This brought a strange line of thought to his brain as he glanced over at Bumblebee. "Hey, it's possible for you to turn into other vehicles, right? 'Cause, I mean, Bee used to be that old Camaro until he saw the new one."

"Yes, it is possible," Ironhide answered. "Why?"

"I was just thinking, what if one of those cop cars is-"

He was cut off by the wailing of several sirens in concert, growing louder and louder as they came up through the northbound lane. A half dozen Highway Patrol cars, lights flashing, were chasing the orange Charger as it wove in and out of the ogling traffic. As it passed their position, it sped up, accelerating at a pace not normally attainable by vehicles of that particular make.

"That was definitely Blitz, fraggin' punk."

* * *

Arad stared at the long line of traffic ahead of them and kicked the dashboard in retribution. She was quite certain that if Tank hadn't insisted on stopping off back at her house to remove the now useless trailer that they would have caught up with the others by now. As it was, both Wrench and Ratchet had gone on ahead while she'd unhooked the trailer, leaving her alone with the grumpy red pick-up.

"I will dump you on the side of the road if you do that again."

"Yeah sure," she retorted, rolling her eyes. "Because real trucks always have eject-able seats."

"Do they really?"

"No."

"Then why did you-"

"For a super-intelligent robot, you're really slow."

"In this form I can achieve speeds in excess of two hundred kilometers per hour," Tank informed her indignantly. "I am not slow."

"Slow as in stupid, you jargon challenged over-sized talking toaster."

"I believe I'm repeating an earlier inquiry: What is a toaster?"

"It's an electrical appliance that uses artificially heated coils of stiff metal wires to toast foods like bread, bagels, and pop tarts," Arad explained, glaring out the windshield at the back end of the car in front of them. "Hence the name 'toaster'."

"I am not a toaster. I cannot toast things."

"Too bad, I could go for some pop tarts right now."

"Go where?"

"You really are hopeless," she muttered, shaking her head before climbing into the driver's seat. "Make a u-turn over the median and grab the northbound lane."

"Such an action is illegal."

"Yeah, but it'll take us towards the exit and there's an alternate route through Dade City that'll get us around this particular section of highway."

"How do you know that?" Tank inquired, checking the internet to verify her claims. Sure enough, there were several main roads that offered a way around this congested stretch of the interstate.

"I memorized Google maps."

"That is impossible. There are at least three hundred gigabytes worth of information in this particular section alone, and while it is not a significant amount by Cybertronian standards, I doubt your brain's memorization center could process even three kilobytes worth before overwriting information."

"Are you dissing the amazing computational power of my cerebral cortex?"

Still connected to the internet, Tank took a few seconds to look up the term 'dissing' on one of the numerous online dictionaries.

"Yes."

"Jackass."

There was another pause as he checked for this word as well.

"I am not a donkey. And I do not believe the secondary definition applies in this situation. I believe you would be better off calling me a 'jerk' as you did early."

"Oh, now you're advising me about curse words?" Arad snorted, flicking the steering wheel. Her attention was caught by the lack of cars on the opposite side of the road. "Look, there's a space, take the u-turn!!"

"Fine."

Grumbling to himself, Tank pulled off into the median and proceeded to make a wide turn over the grass before powering into the northbound lane. True to the map and Arad's prediction, the exit was close-by.

"See told you. Now keep driving for about two or three miles-"

"I know, I have the internet."

"Well, excuse me."

"You're excused."

"Jerk!"

"Twig!"

"Twig!?"

"You're skinny like a twig. This is not an appropriate insult?"

"I'm not a twig!" Arad protested, kicking the dashboard once again. Tank screeched to a stop, staying true to his threat by clicking open the door and dumping the blonde on the pavement. Her backpack followed soon after, and he roared off, laughing at the stunned expression on her face.

It took a few moments for the girl to get over the shock.

"GET BACK HERE YOU TIN BASTARD!!"

* * *

Blitz was an oddity amongst Decepticons as he had managed through sheer accident to avoid severe injury whether it be from battle or at the hands of disgruntled comrades. He was too quick to dodge any shots fired his way and knew instinctively when to duck out of the area when tempers were running high. And tempers often ran high when he was around, as he had made a hobby of being both observant and blunt.

His loyalties were towards the chilling and monotonous Scythe. And as the Decepticon medic was one of Megatron's more devoted subjects, this meant that Blitz too was apt to follow the former Lord High Protector's orders to the letter; sort of. Scythe had commanded him to find and deliver a message to Starscream, and so he had. Sure, it hadn't been word for word, which meant the conniving and probably pissed off seeker would follow him in an attempt to get clarification.

Eventually, the entire message would be delivered, though in the mean time he'd decided to have some fun with the local species. Having earlier caused a few large human vehicles to collide in order to delay the small collection of Autobots he'd noticed on the highway, he decided to create a few more problems. Unfortunately this also brought on the attentions of the local law enforcement vehicles.

The Florida Highway Patrol consists almost entirely of Pontiac Firebirds. No one is quite certain why this particular car was selected by the purveyors of the click it or ticket campaign, but one thing that is certain is that they're no match for a Charger.

Especially a morally challenged alien robot disguised as a Charger.

He left them all in the dust, metaphorically speaking; well, almost all of them. As he dodged traffic at nearly three hundred kilometers per hour, he noticed that one of the siren mounted vehicles was managing to keep up.

In fact, it was gaining on him.

_Uh oh._

Realizing that the automobiles of Earth had yet to reach such speeds on a legalized commercial level, only one of two options could be assumed.

'_Cade, is that you?_

_I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!_

_Good to see you too._

Blitz let himself relax only slightly, just in case the older 'Con's actually decided to try and carry out that threat.

Pit-spawn, you've drawn the attention of the Autobots to our positions when we are sorely outnumbered!

_Don't worry so much, we've got re-enforcements in-coming._

_Enough to counter the five I've tracked landing in this region alone?_

_Uh…no._

_I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!_

With the threat now verified, Blitz increased his speed and zoomed off the highway, forcing a Pepsi truck to brake hard and swerve. It nearly ran off the road, blocking Barricade from continuing to give chase. Ignoring the rules of the road, the orange Dodge took a sharp left turn through a red light, tires squealing in protest. Several other cars struggled to avoid him, horns honking as several fender benders ensued, not that he paid any attention to their actions.

He kept on going, throwing himself into the first right hand road he came too only to nearly collide with the side of a bright red pick-up. Both parties screeched to a halt, having dodged injury by mere centimeters.

_Decepticon scum._  
If Blitz had been in his normal form, his optics would have widened in surprised recognition, as the voice was one he knew well.

_Oh frag._


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer :** Don't own Transformers. Kate, Arad, Tank, Wrench, and Blitz own themselves.

**Reviews :**

Fire From Above - Tank is by far my favorite OC to write right now, at least for this story anyways, so I'm real glad you like him. He'd probably ask what a frying pan is.

The Digital Artist - Yay, glad you liked the poster that Kate-chan made and so happy that it inspired you to read the story. even happier that you like the story too!

StarLightSearch - Actually, see Kate-chan's the one who made the poster and the KH pics, not me. I'm known as Middernacht on Deviantart, and I'm not even half the artist that Kate-chan is. But I'm glad the poster got you over here to read the fic!

ChibiYoshi - Wasn't it just completely awesome on the Dome Screen? And aren't those stairs just so much fun to play on! I think I got yelled at a couple times last summer for mucking about with my summer camp group. They entertained the kids far more than the actual exhibits!

SomeReallyRandomPerson - Blitz often causes problems for everyone and has a habit of annoying and then avoiding those capable of killing him. Which makes things ten times worse when he actually meets up with them again. Tank especially hates the littles rascal, which will be explained sometime in the future.

DarkPredatorDragon - Many question you have, yet answers I can only give a few. They shall be heading to Colorado Springs, because SG1 is kind of too busy fighting the Ori to go on vacation in Florida. No comment on the Ancients thing, but I will say that there are a few surprises concerning them. No, the Goa'uld do not have the Allspark, however, its in the hands of someone equally terrifying. Of the five Autobots mentioned by Barricade, you've already met two of them (Tank and Wrench). Of the remaining three, one is a femme and the other two I was warned against using by certain other reviewers. They shall show up on the road to Colorado.

Riana1 - Tank and Blitz have a slight history of destructive banter between them. Mainly its Blitz being annoying and Tank trying to crush him but failing and instead crushing something else. Arad will get her revenge on Tank, yes. Especially after what he's going to do in the next chapter or so.

blood shifter - Yes, Tank shall get his comeuppance.

**Note :** Sorry that this chapter took so long. I've been distracted by the fact that my dad killed the scanner, depriving me of a means to transfer my holoform smut sketchies into the computer for other people to drool over. I've also been distracted by other people's fanfics too, because they're just that fraggin' good. In other news, we have an official movie poster for this story made by my dear friend Kate-chan. We also have a character sheet for Kate and Arad, also made by Kate-chan. They are all at her gallery at Kate-chan dot DeviantArt dot Com, so go check them out when you get the time.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Nine

"Let me get this straight."

Kate stood on the rock in front of Arad's house, glaring at Tank. It was approximately two hours and thirteen minutes after the incident on the highway that had forced them first to wait and then turn around. They had encountered Ratchet and Wrench upon doubling back, and later on down the road, an extremely pissed off and utterly alone Tank. It was the latter point of the red pick-up that was under discussion at the present moment, mainly because the brown haired girl would not drop the issue despite more pressing concerns. The fact that there were now three confirmed Decepticons roaming around the state was apparently but a small concern in the face of a missing crazy blonde scientist.

"You left her by the side of the road."

"She kicked me," Tank protested sullenly. "And threatened to kill me."

"You know, we kind of have bigger problems to deal with right now," Sam pointed out from his perch on the porch railing. "The highway's blocked off, so we couldn't find Starscream. And not only do we have this Blitz guy driving around causing wrecks, we've also got Barricade to contend with too. Did I leave anything out?"

"We have the matter of the other signal to deal with as well," Ratchet added without looking up from his work. He was taking the moment to inspect Tank's communications array, which for some reason had an obscene amount of dirt in it. "What did you do?"

"I hit one of those communications towers," the Silverado responded with a grunt, waving a hand in the direction of the toppled metal structure. "It tore up a lot of soil."

"What!?" Wrench cried, looking over at him in surprise. "What'd you do, hit it headfirst!?"

"Yes."

The Delorean-turned-robot stared at him in apparent shock.

"I was joking, but... you actually hit it headfirst!?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"I would rather not say."

"He probably came out of his landing stage too early," Ironhide muttered snorting as he picked at few clumps of mulch that had managed to work their way past the outer coverings of his cannons. The look on Tank's face showed that the older mech had gotten it right in one guess. The topkick shook his head and smirked. "I knew it."

"Can we please focus on one issue at a time here!?" Kate cried, jumping down from the rock. "Like the fact that Arad is wandering around alone somewhere in the dark!!"

"Is Arad the one who was yelling at me earlier about the emergency brake?" Wrench inquired, looking at Ratchet. The medic nodded without looking up. "Oh, well she can probably take care of herself, right?"

"Oh, I'm not worried about something happening to her," Kate informed him sourly. "I'm worried about her happening to someone else. If left alone, she could probably figure out a way to make a nuclear bomb out of a toothpick and duct-tape."

"I beleive that is impossible. Nuclear explosives require radioactive material, and both of the items you mentioned are composed of stable elements."

"I'm trying to make a point here."

"And all I'm saying is that it would be futile to attempt to create a-"

"Wrench, didn't you mention having some news or warning or something," Sam broke in, recalling various things that Kate had muttered before they'd left on their failed excursion down the highway. He had a feeling that Kate was probably prone to more violence than Arad when angry and wanted to change the subject before any of them found out how violent. "At least, that's what Kate said that Pinky said that you said, over the phone..."

He trailed off, suddenly aware that all optics were now staring at him.

"Uh..."

"Yes, well, I may have exaggerated a little," Wrench murmurred, taking the attention off Sam. "I beleived that Scythe's squad may have already landed. The fact that you saw Blitz confirms this."

"Oh, so is this Scythe guy with Starscream or is that just a coincidence?"

"Scythe was always one of Megatrons more loyal followers," Ratchet remarked, replacing a few panels on the back of Tank's head. The red pick-up made an irritated noise at this, which earned him an annoyed smack on what could have equated for his ear. "Next time, I'm not fixing it. You're as bad as the twins sometimes, I swear."

"I didn't do it on purpose!"

Ratchet snorted, shaking his head before turning towards Sam to finish explaining.

"I highly doubt that Scythe would be working in cooperation with Starscream, unless their goals were similar. They never did get along."

"So what if this Scythe guy knows about the replicas and the signal in Colorado?" Sam asked thoughtfully. "That could be why he's here right?"

"It is the most likely possibility," Optimus agreed, though he seemed distracted. Turning to look, Sam saw that Kate was glaring up at the Autobot leader in an insistent manner. After a moment's consideration, he sighed and looked over at Bumblebee. "Would you and Tank please go retrieve Arad?"

With a whir that sounded almost like a chirp, Bumblebee nodded whilst Tank groaned aloud at the news.

"Do I have to?" he asked grumpily, not wanting to find out if Arad was capable of carrying out her earlier threats.

"It is your fault in the first place, so yes, you have to," Optimus informed him, watching as Kate turned her glare on the Silverado. "And Kate will be riding along with you to be sure you actually look for her."

"Slag."

"Does that have an equivalent meaning to 'aw crap'?" Kate asked as Tank morphed back into truck form. She look over at Sam who shrugged. "You coming too?"

"Sure," Sam agreed, as Bumblebee shifted into Camaro mode and popped open a door. "But really, I gotta ask. How much trouble could she have caused?"

_Is she dreaming, what I'm thinking, is she the mother of all bombs gonna detonate..._

They both looked at Bee's yellow and black striped hood.

"Yeah," Kate commented with a nod. "That about sums it up."

* * *

Arad had a sneaking suspicion that she was being followed. She knew it wasn't Tank because that grumpy excuse for a Silverado was far too loud and she couldn't hear anything other than the slight breeze and sounds of the highway off in the far too close for comfort distance. After being dumped by the side of the road, she had chased after the truck until it disappeared from view. This was followed by five minutes of pouting, the invention of new and unique ways to disassemble an engine, and several strings of obscenities in twelve different languages.

After her temper tantrum had been thrown, she had decided to walk back to her house which was turning out to be a relatively bad idea. It was dark, already her feet were hurting and the humidity was making her feel like puking.

That and she was hungry, really hungry.

Slowly, she turned her head to glance over her shoulder and saw nothing but air. Frowning, she stopped and swung around only to find herself staring down a goat. It was black with brown spots and it looked up at her with bulbous, unblinking speckled greyish hazel eyes. It had one horn, the other having apparently been broken off, likely due to some scuffle with another of its kind sometime in the past.

"Nla-aa-aah," it bleated at her, almost as if in annoyance that she'd stopped walking. "Nlaa-aaa-aaah!!"

Feeling slightly perturbed, Arad started walking again, this time with a faster than normal pace. After a few moments she looked back and saw that the goat was, as she had suspected, following her.

It was also still staring.

She broke into a controlled speed-walk for the next two minutes and found that the goat had also increased its pace to keep up. Annoyed, she stopped again and spun to face it.

"Go away," she commanded, waving her hand about in a shooing motion. "Go."

"Nlaah."

"Go on, shoo."

Instead of heeding her words it stepped forward, closing the distance between them only to stop short right in front of her to sniff at her shirt. Arad stared down at it in bewilderment, unsure of what to do. That is until it started to bite at her labcoat, which she had previously fastened about her waist.

"Ack, don't!!"

Shoving it away, she started off again only to stumble over a discarded coke can. Picking herself up off the ground, she proceeded to dust off her jeans only to feel a tugging on her coat. Slowly she turned her head around once again to see the goat attempting to make a meal out of her clothes.

Crazy at the best of times and even crazier when hungry, Arad did the only thing that her brain could think of: she took off running whilst screaming at the top of her lungs.

"AAAAAAAHH!! IT'S GONNA EAT ME!!"

* * *

Starscream had found it rather difficult to retake his alt form, flying again for only a few minutes before realizing that the lightning strike and resulting crash had done more than just burn out a few minor circuits. Grumbling, he set down on what appeared to be a deserted stretch of dirt, the remnants of an old airfield maybe. He didn't take the time to contemplate the particulars of his location, but instead set about finding out what was wrong with his right wing.

After about five minutes of tinkering and the sudden realization that he actually couldn't reach the spot over his shoulder that needed to be fixed, he wished that he had something to shoot.

Preferably a certain orange mech.

The sudden sound of a terrified scream broke through his audio receptors somewhere to his immediate left. He turned just in time to see a small, skinny human female come running through the trees trailing several leaves and a lab coat.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!"

She didn't seem to notice him, but kept on running straight across the field towards the clump of woods on the opposite side. A few seconds later a strange horned quadruped about half the girl's size came trotting after, bleating in a random way. Unlike the human, this creature noticed him and promptly decided that its quarry was not worth the effort of contending with something a hundred times bigger.

It ran back the way it came.

No longer hearing the cries of her pursuer, the girl stopped short of the woods and paused mid-scream. Slowly she turned around, a frown on her face that turned quickly to a look of surprise when she spotted Starscream.

"Oh."

She blinked, considering.

"Do you happen to know which way the road is?"

Slightly surprised that the girl hadn't resumed screaming as was usually custom whenever humans had encountered his normal form, Starscream considered actually answering the question. However, as his optics flitted around the area he realized that things looked a whole lot different at ground level.

"No."

"Damn," she muttered, shoving her hand in her pockets and glancing around. "Well, this sucks."

She narrowed her eyes.

"You're one of the bad guys aren't you."

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

"You've got F-22 markings on you, and Sam said the only robot that turns into an F-22 is called Starscream and he's a Decepticon."

"I see."

Starscream considered this information. Obviously this girl had encountered the Autobots and their pet human. It was probably inevitable that, if left alive, she would also be adopted by the weak organic loving glitchheads.

And really, he had been wanting something to shoot.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer : **I don't own Transformers and if you haven't figured that out by now, that's kind of sad. Arad, Kate, and the other OCs of which there are too many to list, own themselves.

**Reviews : **

Dark Predator Dragon - Eventually, Starscream will find out just how hazardous Arad can be to his health. Not this chapter, but sometime down the road. Yes, the SGC does have one of the Allspark Replicas. They don't know what the hell it is, but its there.

StarLightSeraph - It's alright, no need to apologize. The song used last chapter was 'She's a Rebel' by Greenday, and I find the songs by listening to my Allspark Cube, which is the name I have given to my Digiblok MP3 player. I also use google to find lyrics.

Kiseki no Tenshi - Thankyou. Hope this one gets the same reception.

Fire From Above - The goat is evil and will more than likely have another cameo in the future, yes. I find myself in agreement with you about Starscream and Arad being able to take over the universe. Such a team up would be awesome and reminisce of 'Pinky and the Brain' due to spasticness. I think I'll write it as a side-story.

Some Really Random Person - Blitz is in this chapter, and he'll have a larger role later on in the story. Arad's marbles, once plentiful and shiny, are now lost to the far corners of the dimensional black hole known as her bedroom closet. There they shall stay until the end of time.

Fae Child19 - Randomness is my middle name. Starscream is slowly regaining his position as my most favorite 'Con.

blood shifter - And now we find out what happens, although admittedly I'm not happy with how things turned out in this chapter.

**Notes : **As mentioned before, I am not too fond of this chapter, it's kind of forced due to the need to have something here for chapter ten. I kind of wanted to make the fight scene longer, but it would have been horribly redundant due to a lack of adjectives to describe Starscream's capabilities. I hate the fact that they left him out of the Movie Guide Book, it leaves me with a hole in my heart. Oh yeah, and in this chapter we have the added addition of the Cybertronian language, which is identifyable by being bolded and italicized for your reading pleasure.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Ten

The following occurs somewhere outside of San Antonio at eight twenty-three in the evening.

Tires screeched as Tank braked to a stop under the incessant shouted commands of Kate in the driver's seat. He rolled down the window as per her instructions and she leaned out to look back at Bumblebee.

"Did you hear a scream?" she called back, as Sam leaned out the window of the Camaro to hear what she was saying. "Bloodcurdling or otherwise?"

"No."

There was an abrupt shriek through the darkness off to their left, long, loud, and echoing. It caused the night to go silent and Sam to stare wide-eyed in the direction of clump of pine trees.

"I stand corrected."

"And we go that away," Kate said, sitting back in the seat of the pick-up. "Step on it, Tank."

"Step on what?"

"JUST GO, DAMMIT!!"

* * *

In the half second it took for Starscream to power up his rifle and take aim, the skinny human had managed to do the same, except her weapon looked far clunkier and possibly too heavy for her to be carrying around. The fact that it was almost too big for her to hold upright created more confusion in his processors, especially seeing as there was no place on her person for her to have hidden the cannon. She appeared to be aiming at his head, although it was difficult to discern exactly where the barrel of the device was actually pointing or located for that matter. It looked like collection of entangled pipes and insulation, with wires wrapped in what humans referred to as 'duct tape' around the outside. 

Curiosity got the better of him.

"What is that?"

"It's a matter disruptor," she replied evenly, using one hand to adjust a small gage on what could only be a scope. "Bit messy sometimes, but it works."

"A matter disruptor?" Starscream echoed, optics narrowing. "You lie."

"Nope."

"Your race is too primitive to have created something so complex."

"Keep telling yourself that."

Keeping the barrel of his rifle trained on the girl, Starscream took a few seconds to think things through. On the one hand, he was almost a hundred percent certain that it was impossible for humans, let alone a single puny female, to have created such a destructive device as a matter disruptor. Even if they had managed to reverse engineer nearly all of their technology from Megatron, the late Decepticon leader had not possessed such a weapon.

On the other hand, if she wasn't lying, then the current situation was definitely not favorable. There was also the small matter of where the damn contraption had come from, when all she had were those stupid cloth coverings. He took a moment to review the previous scene in his mind, rewinding his internal recordings until he found the exact few seconds in which the device had first appeared in her hands.

It had not been sub-spaced like his own rifle.

It had been pulled from the confines of the tiny black bag handing on her shoulder.

"Exactly how did you pull something of that mass from that container?" Starscream inquired, gesturing with his rifle towards the backpack in question. "Its special dimensions do not match up."

"Size matters not."

"My reflexes are significantly faster than yours," Starscream pointed out, tapping his fingers against the barrel of his rifle. The girl seemed to consider this, still fiddling with the knobs on her own weapon, causing the seeker some irritation. "I don't have all night, human, so answer the question!"

"Actually, I think you do have all night, possibly tomorrow, and the day after as well, judging by the scorch marks on your shoulder. I'd offer my repair skills, but seeing as we seem to be in a bit of a Mexican stand-off..."

She trailed off, tilting her head to the side as if listening for something.

"Do you hear an ominous rumbling sound?"

"No."

"Ah, must just be my stomach then," she muttered, approximately two seconds before the trees to the left exploded outwards as a rather pissed off red pick-up crashed into the clearing. Starscream took advantage of the distraction to shoot at the girl, but missed as she had been forced to dodge out of the way of the truck. The blast hit the Silverado's tailgate, sending it into a spin, tires causing dirt to go flying everywhere. Someone inside the cab was screaming rather shrilly for the pick-up to stop as it went crashing through the trees on the opposite side of the clearing.

The blonde human promptly re-leveled her weapon in Starscream's direction. Her bright green eyes were narrowed in annoyance.

"That was just plain rude."

The Silverado must have ceased in momentum after hitting the far side trees, for its occupant stumbled into sight looking rather dizzy human girl. Pigtails askew, she ambled uncertainly for a moment before finally focusing on the cannon-like contraption in her friend's hand.

"Arad, what the hell have you done now!?"

"Turn around, Kate."

Kate did so, spotted Starscream and abruptly lost her balance as the motion had disrupted her already unstable motion centers. She hit the grass face first with a muffled thud, groaning at the sudden headache now pounding against her skull.

"I think I'm going to puke," she muttered, spitting out a dead leaf as she sat up again. "I really hope you don't need my DMK right now, because I am definitely going to puke."

"Nah, I got this covered."

"COVERED?" Starscream snapped, glaring at her. "I could kill you right now!!"

"Uh huh, sure," Arad responded, rolling her eyes. She twitched the barrel of her current weapon of choice to remind him of its presence. "Matter disruptor."

"I thought that was chalk gun," said a gruff and recognizable voice from the trees behind her. Starscream glanced up to see that the red truck was, as he had suspected upon its initial appearance, one of the Autobots. More importantly, and he counted himself lucky in this, it was one of the less intelligent ones.

"It's a matter disruptor, Tank."

"No, I'm pretty sure that's the chalk gun," the mech responded, his own cannon out and ready. "I saw you testing it this afternoon."

On cue, Starscream lifted his rifle and sent a blast aimed straight at the red bot's chest, only to miss when the clunky mech was pushed out of the way by a gleaming yellow blur. Cursing, he took aim again only to be struck by return fire and the sound of shrieking in his optics as the two humans girls attempted to avoid getting stepped on.

Tank, having managed to roll back onto his feet after getting knocked aside by Bumblebee, decided to charge straight ahead. This, unfortunately, took him over the space where Arad and Kate were currently scurrying around. The two of them dove out of the way, but distracted the mech so that he stumbled and fell into his target with far less momentum than originally intended.

Starscream shoved him aside, turning the barrel of his rifle to finish him off only to get blasted by Bumblebee's cannon in his already injured shoulder. He was then promptly kicked in the knee joint by Tank. Having gotten the seeker's return attention, he sent a plasma blast straight at the larger mech's head. True to Starscream's earlier statement, his reaction time was strikingly fast but not fast enough to avoid the blow in its entirety.

Left audio receiver burning, he staggered backwards, firing wildly. Several shots burned holes in the ground, others hit the tree line, igniting the foliage and sending a third human running from the edge of the battlefield with a startled cry. In retaliation, Bumblebee sent a missile flying in Starscream's direction, missing as the seeker jumped into the air, shifting in mid-leap to his chosen alt mode.

With a shriek, his engines flared and he took off into the sky, trailing smoke from his right wing.

"DAMMIT TANK!! IF I SAY IT'S A MATTER DISRUPTOR, IT DAMN WELL IS A MATTER DISRUPTER, YOU STUPID OVERGROWN EASY BAKE OVEN!!"

* * *

Blitz wasn't certain how Starscream had managed to find him when he was still being cautious after escaping both Barricade and Tank. All he knew was that the Decepticon second-in-command looked, to utilize a human expression, 'like hell'. 

"Bad day?"

"Scythe trained you in medical procedures, did he not?" Starscream inquired, choosing at this time to ignore the orange mech's comment. The Charger nodded somewhat reluctantly, the metal flaps on the side of his face clicking together several times in a worried fashion. "Then fix my shoulder."

"Uh…"

"Are you deaf?"

"I have none of the proper equipment needed," Blitz protested, avoiding the seeker's gaze. "And I have orders…"

"Orders?"

"Standing orders, actually."

"To what?"

"To not fix you."

Starscream stared at him, annoyance growing by the second.

"WHAT!?"

"Orders are orders."

"I am the leader of the Decepticons!!" Starscream shouted angrily, activating his rifle for the third time in less than a joor. "You will do as I say!"

"Nope, sorry, can't help you."

For the second time that day, he dodged a strike from the seeker, speeding off in his alt form and disappearing into the distance.

* * *

"You tried to convince Starscream that your chalk gun was a matter disruptor?" Ratchet inquired of Arad as the girl attempted to clean the grass out of her hair. She nodded, sending Tank an 'I-am-so-going-to-kill-you' type glare. They had returned to her house, although Bumblebee and Sam had been forced to return to the other side of the county in order to keep his mother from murdering him. Now Arad was sitting on the porch railing, with the Autobots milling about on the grass listening to the exchange. "And you are saying he would have fallen for it if not for…" 

He trailed off, turning his attention back to the vermillion Silverado and the damage the blow to Tank's tailgate had caused. It was mostly superficial but there was some wiring that had gotten fused together that would need to be replaced.

"Somehow, I highly doubt it. Starscream used to be a scientist, he would have known that it wasn't what you said it was."

"Well, that explains why he was so curious about my book bag."

"What?"

Sighing, Kate walked over and picked up her friend's little black backpack, holding it up for all to see.

"Behold, the patented black hole backpack," she announced, waving a hand through the air like a professional infomercial host. "For reasons unknown to you, me, and possibly the rest of the universe, this thing can hold an infinite number of items no matter the size."

"That is impossible," Wrench scoffed. "To attach such a manipulation of spacial properties, one would need—"

"An allocation of compressed quantum energy inside a stable trans-dimensional field generator so as to create a non-corroded alternate dimension to hold the objects in question for an indefinite amount of time," Arad finished, taking off her glasses. She used her shirt to wipe them off before sticking them back on her face. When she looked back up, all of the mechs present were staring at her. "What?"

"How in pit could you have possibly understood the mathematical equations needed to even calculate the existence of such a device?" Ratchet asked, optics wide. "It may not be my field of study, but I know that such calculations and even the construction of it would be extremely difficult, not to mention dangerous."

"Did we not already discuss the fact that I'm a genius?"

"So what are you guys going to do now?" Kate asked, intervening before a remark could be made questioning her friend's already fragile grip on reality. "Go after that signal in Colorado?"

"Yes," Optimus answered with a sigh. "As it is more than likely the reason that Scythe is here on Earth, therefore we will attempt to reach it before he does."

"We should leave now," Ironhide suggested, jerking his head towards the road. "Sam and Bumblebee can catch up with us later."

"Oh goody," Arad muttered, hopping down from the porch rail. "I've always wanted to go on a road trip."

"What?"

"Just let me grab some stuff, kay?"

"You are not coming."

"Why not!?"

"You are—You just aren't!!" Ironhide insisted, glancing at Optimus for help. "They aren't coming with us, are they?"

"No," the Autobot leader said. "I agree with Ironhide, you cannot accompany us."

"Aw, come on."

"Why not?" Kate asked, looking put off. "We helped out."

"And we appreciate your assistance, however, it would be irresponsible of us to place you in any more danger than what has already been brought upon you."

"I'm not afraid."

"Neither am I," Arad added, nodding in an overly-exaggerated fashion. "I'll bring some of my more effective weaponry than the chalk gun this time."

"This is not up for argument."

"Of course it is, everything's up for argument."

"You are not coming with us."

Arad stuck out her bottom lip and sucked in a deep breath.

"I DID NOT CRAWL DOWN A DRAINAGE PIPE, GET DUMPED ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, OR SHOT AT TO BE LEFT BEHIND WHEN THINGS JUST START GETTING COOL!!"

"Ow," Kate muttered, massaging her ears. "Watch the decibels, will you?"

"Sorry Kate."

Optimus stared down at the fuming blonde girl, then turned to Ironhide.

"_**I do not think they will drop this issue without a fight,**_" he murmured in Cybertronian. "_**I know that humans are naturally stubborn, but these two appear to define the word.**_"

"_**I have a suggestion**_," Wrench volunteered, with a sideways glance at the girls. "_**Just let them think they're coming with us**_."

"_**That is a dishonest tactic.**_"

"_**I**__**don't think we're going to get rid of them any other way**_."

Optimus sighed again and turned back to regard Kate and Arad.

"Very well, you may come," he told them, then nodded at the house. "Go ahead and gather what you need to bring."

Grinning, the two of them scrambled into the house, leaving the Autobots alone in the front yard. Exchanging glances, they shifted swiftly into their respective vehicle modes and headed down the driveway. However, Tank hung back a moment, as if hesitating or rethinking the plan.

"Are you coming or not!?" Ironhide barked at him.

"Just a moment!" the red mech called, before speeding ahead to catch up. He was sitting smug on his chassis as they pulled out onto Springlake highway.

"What were you doing?"

"I believe the human term for it would be 'insurance policy'," Tank replied with an almost cheery air. "Yes, that definition fits nicely."

* * *

Five minutes later, the girls came back outside to find the front yard utterly empty save for a few fresh tire treads in the muck. 

"What the hell," Kate remarked, dropping her duffel bag at her feet. "What jerks!!"

"Relax, we've got the Cavvy," Arad assured her, pulling her car keys out of her back pack. She turned towards the vehicle in question, moving to unlock the driver's side door only to stop short upon seeing the front tire.

It was in shreds.

Warily, she moved around the front end to check the passenger side, but it too was completely and utterly useless. Without needing to look, she knew the back ones were more than likely torn up as well.

"TANK I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!"


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer :** I don't own Transformers, however, I do currently own Bumblebee, Barricade, and Optimus Prime toys. They are currently hanging out on top of my television. Arad, Kate, and all other OCs mentioned own themselves…except for Tank. His aft will, very soon, be Arad's prized possession. She'll probably mount it on the wall.

**Reviews :** (Damn it, I missed the 69 review mark…)

P-chan13 – Yes, we really must hang out more. I shall poke you through AIM next time I get the chance, luv and we shall have a fanfic brainstorming session of our own design.

Dark Predator Dragon – Yeah, the Autobots are headed to Colorado Springs, Sam's kind of sort of headed to Tranquility, and the girls acquire alternate Transportation as well as a new pair of friends.

StarLightSeraph – Only a certain Autobot is going to be dead, mainly because he's the one who killed the Cavvy's tires. You don't mess with the Cavalier, even if it is beige and has a broken speedometer.

Psychic-Ghost – Yay!

Bluebird Soaring – Er, the Mad Scientist Sugar Addict is the blonde. Her friend is brunette, and a ninja, as shall be revealed later on. Sorry if I haven't made it clear… I confuse myself sometimes even.

blood shifter – Oh yeah, Sam's definitely going to get roped up in the girls vengeance schemes.

**Note :** Wow, I'm actually surprised at myself. This story has survived past the Chapter Ten mark! That's a new record for me! Most of mine die off before they even get close! Erm, well anyways, enjoy this chapter, sorry for the delay in posting. the next one might have a slight delay as well, since I start my new job at Gamestop this Friday. Yep, that's right, Black Friday. At six-thirty in the morning. Yay. See how enthusiastic I am about waking up that early? Double-freaking-yay.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Eleven

"Let's just clarify something here," Sam said, leaning back in the driver's seat. He held his cell phone up to his face, mentally berating himself for not escaping his Uncle's house earlier that morning. But then again, his mother had been ranting and he knew better than to leave in the middle of one of her lectures. "You guys decided to leave those two behind."

((Yes.))

"And you're absolutely certain that there's no way that they could have followed you."

((Tank assures me that they could not have pursued us in either of the two other vehicles on the property.))

"Yeah, I saw what he did to the Cavalier," Sam muttered. He and Bumblebee had gone to Arad's house first thing that morning after learning that the rest of the Autobots were on their way to Colorado. This hadn't been a joint decision, as Sam was more than happy to leave the two girls to their own devices and go ahead and catch up with the others. Bumblebee, however, had insisted on checking on them after hearing about Tank's 'insurance policy' as something about that term seemed to reek of bad mischief. Sure enough, they'd found the beige Chevy still in the driveway with its tires torn apart. "They're not there."

((You are certain?))

Optimus sounded worried at this news, which made Sam slightly more nervous than he already was. It was bad enough imagining what trouble those girls might have found or caused, but it was made even worse to think that the leader of the Autobots was worrying the exact same thing.

"I'm sure enough to know that Arad has booby-trapped every window on the house," Sam replied, fiddling with a new rip in his favorite shirt. Torn clothing was beginning to become somewhat of a hazard. "They're not there, and they're not at Kate's house either. I would have noticed when we left my Uncle's place."

((This is not good.))

"No, no it's not."

((Do either of them have a cellular phone?))

"I don't know," Sam replied, trying to remember if he'd seen Kate or Arad with one. He drew a blank, the only contact with any kind of cell being when Kate had covered for him back when his mother had called to rant at him. "Arad probably had one, but it would have been in that backpack of hers I bet. And even if she did have one, wouldn't it be unlisted like she said her house was?"

((More likely than not. I am sorry to ask this, but could you and Bumblebee attempt to locate them. The Decepticons will more than likely be converging on Colorado, but in case some do not…))

"Then we don't want them getting any hostages," Sam concluded, sighing irritably. "Anything else for us to worry about?"

((We picked up two more Autobot signals about an hour ago, within the vicinity of the city known as Gainesville but they have not answered any recent communications. They will more than likely be headed towards Nevada. It would be beneficial if you could find them and redirect them towards Colorado, as we may need their assistance to deal with Scythe and whoever else he may have brought with him.))

"Okay, so not only do we have to find the girls, but there's two more for our side that have no clue what's going on. Hell, I barely know what's going on, how am I supposed to explain it to someone else!? And how can you be so sure that they're Autobots!?"

((I doubt anyone could mistake the identities of these particular mechs.))

_I got double trouble, I got double trouble, I got double trouble twice as much as anybody else oh yeah!_

"Was that Elvis?" Sam asked the radio, momentarily distracted. The sound of applause issued forth from the speakers, indicating that he'd guessed correctly. "Why do I feel like I'm going to need some aspirin when dealing with this?"

* * *

Kate followed a few step behind Arad up the driveway of a rather non-descript looking house approximately fifteen miles from civilization, lamenting the decision to agree on this particular excursion. The bikes they'd arrived on lay discarded on the lawn and she was quite sure that they would need new tires, just like she was needing a new butt right now. In fact, she was almost certain that the aforementioned portion of her body might have fallen off, but upon reaching back to check discovered that it was still attached. 

"Arad, my butt is numb," she complained as her blonde friend marched up onto the porch and, without knocking or even ringing the doorbell, barged in through the door. "Are we trespassing?"

"No."

"Okay then."

She trailed after Arad into the house, noting that there was a collection of kids sitting on the couch watching a rather large television on which various buildings proceeded to explode. Pausing to watch the fiery brilliance of HDTV, she hardly noticed as her comrade slipped into the kitchen.

"Uncle Jay?"

"Oh, hey Arad," replied someone who's front half was hidden beneath the cupboard under the sink. Various tools lay scattered on the tile floor. "What's up?"

"Can I borrow your keys?"

"Why?"

"A giant alien robot disguised as my dad's truck slashed the tires on my Cavalier," she responded, examining a spare socket wrench. "I wish to enact vengeance."

"You'll fill up the gas tank, right?"

"Yes, Uncle Jay."

"Keys are on the hook," he informed her, drawing out from under the sink long enough to gesture at the opposite wall, screwdriver in hand. "Remember, its diesel, not regular."

"I know, Uncle Jay."

"Be careful."

"Okay, Uncle Jay."

"Don't kill anybody."

"I wasn't planning to, Uncle Jay."

"Even if it happens to be a giant alien robot disguised as your dad's truck."

"Goodbye, Uncle Jay."

Arad grabbed the keys off the hook and left the kitchen, stopping to stand next to Kate as a particularly violent scene involving a helicopter and a car colliding in mid-air over took the television screen. The boys sitting on the couch glanced over, briefly distracted from the movie by the arrival of their cousin. She nodded briefly to them, then took Kate's arm and pulled her towards the door.

"But the explosions!!"

"I'm pretty sure that we're going to get to see real ones, Kate."

"Is that a truck?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?" Kate asked nervously. "It looks like its going to eat me."

"It's not going to eat you."

"But it's big and scary, and big."

"Just get in," Arad yelled out the driver's side window. "We don't have all day! They're probably half way to Colorado by now and this thing'll only go one-ten if we're lucky!!"

"One-ten?"

Kate walked cautiously to the driver's side, climbing up on the step bar and yanking open the door. She tried to ignore the evil looking skull decals painted on the side. As she strapped herself in, Arad handed her a slip on paper.

"What's this?"

"Read it."

Kate looked down at the sheet and frowned.

**A NOTE FOR THE RIDER**

Hello, and welcome to **THE BEAST**. The management would like to explain a few simple, easy rules and regulations to help make your ride more enjoyable. We the management have only your safety in mind when it comes to driving, so please review this paper carefully and completely.

Have a pleasant day.

**RULES**

**Rule 1** : Keep your hands and feet to yourself and remain seated at all times.

**Rule 2** : Pay your own way in gas. **THE BEAST** is a sophisticated gas-guzzler and needs its nutrients. Any loans or charity are expected to be paid back in money or blood if required, unless told otherwise.

**Rule 3** : The music played in **THE BEAST** is decided by the management and the management only, unless told otherwise.

**Rule 4** : Violation of rules will result in use of the ejection seat.

**Rule 5** : Any questions, comments, or concerns, refer to the management.

**Rule 6** : illegible is the management.

**SIT DOWN,**

**SHUT UP,**

**AND HOLD ON!**

"Arad?"

"Yes?"

"Why did you scribble out your Uncle's name in rule six with magic marker and replace it with yours?" Kate inquired, holding up the paper and pointing to the offending line. "And why is it called the beast?"

Arad stuck the key in the ignition and turned it, resulting in a deafening roar of noise from the engine. Temporarily deafened, Kate snapped on her seatbelt as they pulled out from behind the house, bumped down the front lawn and onto the main road. Glancing out the passenger side window, she saw that the bumps had been their bicycles, which now lay in pieces on the grass. Deciding that her question had been answered, she turned her focus towards other things, like not screaming when it seemed like they might collide or run over other cars. Compared to riding along with Arad driving her dad's truck, this was approximately ten times worse, mainly because she was more than a hundred percent certain that this vehicle wasn't an alien robot in disguise.

If it was, it was probably one of the bad ones and they would be so totally screwed.

"Arad?"

"Yes?"

"What if your uncle's truck is one of the bad guys?"

"It isn't," Arad informed her, honking the horn as they passed a mint green hatchback at nearly ninety. "I checked."

"How did you check?"

"I kicked it and it didn't talk back."

"Oh, okay then."

* * *

Two hours later and approximately a hundred and fifty miles northwards, two of the most expensive cars this side of the Atlantic ocean were attracting attention by their less than literal interpretation of the rules of the road. Apparently the speed limit signs weren't suggestions, but actually graphic representations of the velocity one was allowed to travel at on certain streets. 

They were also arguing with each other, which wasn't helping the situation.

_We should take a left!!_

A grey-green station wagon was dodged, with its occupants gaping at the half-million dollar cars passing on either side. The sirens chasing them increased in number as both vehicles went streaking towards another intersection.

_What!? There's more traffic!!_

_But there is a road just a few meters past that leading straight north that doesn't have heavy traffic_

_That's because it's probably made of dirt!!_

_Everything here is made of dirt!!_

_Your face is made out of dirt!!_

As if on cue, one gleamingly yellow Murciélago attempted to run an equally glittery red Reventón off the road and into a nearby Starbucks. This didn't work, mainly because a rather large midnight blue Ford F-350 with airbrushed skulls on the doors got in the way.

The occupants of the truck shrieked in terror.

Or more to the point the girl in the passenger seat shrieked in terror, as the driver was currently distracted by the rather rapid fire and angry music playing on the radio. The only thing the bump against the left side of the truck's frame served to do was get a sideways glance out the side-view window. This glance was followed by a loud string of expletives as the driver both slammed on the brakes and swung the wheel to the right, resulting in the world's worst impression of a stunt driver.

The truck skidded about twenty feet, both occupants screaming bloody murder over every inch, and came to a rest in the middle of the four way intersection, Lamborghinis on either side.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?"

"H-h-half-million dollars cars," stammered the driver, face plastered to the side window. "TWO OF THEM!!"

"Are you fucking kidding me Arad!?"

"No, they're sitting right there," the blonde pointed out, earning herself a fist in the shoulder. "Ow, that hurts!!"

"YOU THINK THAT HURTS!? WHAT IF YOU'D FLIPPED THE TRUCK!?"

"It's got roll bars, Kate, we'd be fine."

"I AM GONNA—"

Kate paused mid-shriek, staring past her friend out the window towards the yellow car, having spotted a familiar looking symbol on its hood. Unbeknownst to her, there was a similar conversation going on between the two vehicles in question.

_Way to go, genius! What if they'd flipped the truck?_

_You'd be in big trouble, for one._

_You're the one who tried to run me off the road, Sides!_

_You deserved it._

_I'm gonna—Hey, they're getting out and…those wailing vehicles are getting closer…_

"Kate, what're you doing?" Arad inquired of her friend as the brunette walked around the front end of the truck. "We kind of should probably get out of here before the police confuse us for underage drivers…again."

"They've got the Autobot symbol on them."

"Oh, well that just makes the idea of getting arrested a whole lot better, doesn't it?"

Kate threw her a glare and approached the red Reventón, noting that, indeed it was a spiffy looking car.

"Hello," she said by way of greeting, directing the comment at the windshield in general, as there really was no other place to speak to. She ignored the numerous pedestrians on the sidewalk that were now gawking at her. Or perhaps they were gawking at the glittery, very empty cars that had just nearly missed crashing into them. "The name's Kate."

"And you're insane," Arad called from the door of her truck. "Didn't Bumblebee and company say just yesterday that one of the Decepticons is cop car!? Hello!! The entire highway patrol is about to come crashing down on our asses, probably because of these two!"

"Hey, don't lay the blame on both of us! It was Sunny's idea to buzz them!"

"It was not," protested the yellow car, headlights flashing indignantly. "You're the one who clipped the first one!"

"Was not!"

"Okay, that's it!!" Arad shouted, slamming the driver's side door shut. Several hundred yards down the street, several patrol cars came skidding around the corner and proceeded to race towards them. "Kate pick one, I don't care which, but stick close to the truck or we're all gonna be going to hell in hand basket!!"

With that said, she threw the truck in gear. With a roar it turned, flashing a grill ladened with styled metal teeth before taken off down a side road. The yellow Murciélago took off after it, leaving Kate to join the red Lamborghini. The second she'd strapped herself in, he too sped off after the lumbering yet surprisingly fast Ford.

"So," Kate murmured, glancing back at the still pursuing cop cars and noting that the leather seats had that new car smell. "What's your name?"

"Sideswipe," came the reply from the stereo speakers. "The ugly yellow one's my brother, Sunstreaker."

"Ah, you must be the twins, right?"

"How'd you know that?"

"Ratchet muttered something about you."

"You've know the Hatchet!?"

Kate blinked, staring at the buttons on the radio for one long moment before bursting out laughing.

"Oh my god, that's the greatest nickname ever!!"

"Isn't it just?"

* * *

Somewhere north of Gainesville, Sam and Bumblebee had paused in their search at a rest stop alongside the highway. This was mostly for Sam's benefit, as he was starving and there were half a dozen vending machines to choose from. Fishing several quarters from the recesses of his pockets, he was about to make a selection when the sound of really loud music attacked his ears. At first he thought that maybe some idiot was parking with his stereo too loud, and that the noise would soon cease. This, was apparently not the case, for the noise just got louder and louder until the plexi-glass casing on the snack machine in front of him started to shake dangerously from the sound. 

Very slowly, Sam turned around only to find himself staring down the grill of a hellhound in truck form. There were even teeth involved, the kind put on by someone who wants to convey a sense of fear to oncoming traffic.

He doubted even Ironhide could look that menacing in vehicle mode.

It had parked itself less than three feet away, having climbed the curb and a few wooden benches as well. The stereo was still blasting unintelligibly screaming lyrics, probably a pissed off heavy metal band. And there, glaring at him with the fury of someone who has the power to run over pedestrians, was a certain bespectacled blonde.

Sam promptly dropped his quarters.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer :** So far my plots to acquire ownership have failed, so until the day comes when my evil scheming is fruitful, they belong to Hasbro. Kate, Arad, and all other OCs own themselves.

**Reviews :**

Bookaholicfox - The best? Really? Wow, I feel rather happy and bouncy now.

StevDown - Mad? Of course I'm mad, whatever gave you the impression that I might be sane!? And, um, sorry, but this is going to be taking place near the end of season ten, so although I loved Janet's character, she's not going to be appearing in this story.

Toshikuru 'Yume' Shonen - Thank you, hope you like this update just as much.

P-chan13 - I don't have a set schedule as of yet. Its more like they'll randomly call me in if they need somebody to work.

Fae Child19 - Sam does some screaming in this chapter.

The Digital Artist - Er, I hope this chapter meets your expectations. proceeds to hide behind the couch just in case.

Fire From Above - Of course you do, they're the twins. Everyone loves the twins.

Riana1 - Oh, they'll be friends alright, who else is going to help Arad get back at Tank? The hell-truck is not going to become a transformer, do to the fact that its more than likely going to get destroyed within the next five chapters or so...probably going to be Tank's fault too...just another item for Arad to yell about I guess.

StarLightSeraph - Yep, they're so in for it...eventually...if my muses stop sidetracking me with such minor things as plot points. Pffft, who needs plot points when my brain's running on candy?

SomeReallyRandomPerson - Have I told you yet how awesome your name is? Because it is. And pranks are definitely on the menu, especially where Tank is concerned.

bloodshifter - No...well, not yet anyways...

Psychic-Ghost - Yeah, the twins are unmistakable in any universe. Fanfictions have taught me nearly everything I know about Transformers, well, that and the Ultimate Guidebook which isn't as helpful as it could be. Damn publishers leaving things out.

**Note : **I would like to request that those who have been pestering Shoujax about my updating habits to please stop. I won't name any names, mainly because Harry knows who he is. Let me just say that if you keep threatening your cousin, I will steal your entire collection of trading cards and burn them. In a trash can. Alongside my sister's old Cosmo magazines. And we don't want that now, do we? No, I didn't think so.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Twelve

"So they just left you two behind, just like that?"

"I bet it was Tank's idea," Kate muttered grumpily, glaring out the window. "He really was a jerk."

The past few hours had been sent explaining the events of the past few days to the twins, or at least, trying to explain. She kept on getting interrupted by blasts of music coming from behind them, and occasionally the next lane over when Bumblebee saw an opening. They had found him sitting all alone at a rest stop near the state border, playing sad music over his stereo speakers. Kate had safely concluded that Arad had finally gone off the deep end and kidnapped Sam, probably to hold for ransom or something equally diabolical.

Occasionally appearing on the roadside were signs declaring that they would soon be crossing the Mighty Mississippi. Although by now it was a bit too dark to see anything but the tail lights of Sunstreaker in the lane ahead of them, and the headlights of oncoming traffic on the opposite side of the highway. Kate sighed and tried to think like her best friend in anticipation about what the blonde scientist might do, but this simply produced a slight headache.

"Bumblebee wants to know if you're completely sure that your friend won't kill Sam," Sideswipe relayed, sounding slightly annoyed as this was the fifth time the Camaro had made this inquiry. "He also says that we should go pick up Mikaela before heading to Colorado, whoever that is."

"Sam's girlfriend, I think."

"So what should we do?"

"Why're you asking me?" Kate responded, throwing a look at the steering wheel. "I'm not the one in charge of this party...unless you had an election without notifying me, and that's really not democratic you know."

"Well, you are worried about what's happened to your friend..."

"I'm not worried about what's happened to her, geez, how many times in one week am I supposed to explain this? I'm worried about her happening to someone or something else. She's a ticking time bomb, you know."

"Yeah, I do," Sideswipe replied, voice filled with an invisible grin. "I have one too, he's called my brother."

_I HEARD THAT!_

_So what? It's true._

_Slaghead._

_Fragger._

_Pi-_

"Boys," Kate said in a warning tone. "No texting curses. It's rude and besides, how am I to appreciate the insults if they're whizzing past on silent channels?"

_I like her._

_You would._

_Shut it, you pissant._

_What the frag is a pissant?_

_Dunno, but it's on the internet as some sort of human curse word._ Sunstreaker texted back, with the digital equivalent of a shrug._ There sure are a lot of them._

Behind them, Bumblebee honked his horn impatiently.

_and when the answer that you want, is in the question that you state, come what may, come what may, what did I do to deserve, what did I do to deserve_

Slapping the window button, ignoring Sideswipe's protest about doing so, Kate leaned out to yell back at the car behind them.

"FOR THE LAST TIME, SHE'S NOT GOING TO KILL HIM!!"

* * *

Sam sat rather uncomfortably in the passenger seat of the doom-inspiring pick-up truck. This wasn't for lack of trying to escape, mind you, but Arad had adopted a rather eerily evil look about her that suggested that trying to run away again would be hazardous to his health. Thankfully the stereo had burned out before severe injury had been incurred on his eardrums, although the headache the three hours of unending death metal music prior to that was still pounding at his skull. 

He had wondered what had happened to Bumblebee, who had parked on the other side of the rest stop from the vending machines but Arad, in her haste to kidnap him, had not even let him retrieve his dropped change let alone warn his best friend of the return to insanity. She hadn't spoken to him outside of those first initial demands for him to get in the truck, buckle up, and to read some warning label about the said truck printed on standard white paper. All of his initial questions had gone unanswered, despite several repeated attempts to get an answer, so Sam was forced to conclude that, quite possibly, he was going to die.

It had taken some time to actually reach that particular thought. Arad's silence, the fact that Kate wasn't there, compounded on the fact that Bumblebee was not racing after them at top speed had contributed to it. There was also the possibility that the truck itself might turn out to be a Decepticon, though he'd yet to locate the pointed symbol of that faction in the interior cabin. He had, however, found a few dozen fierier skull insignias like the ones painted on the doors and also a real skull, albeit plastic, underneath his seat.

Abruptly, his cell phone rang.

With a hesitant glance at Arad, he reached into his pocket and pulled it out. The caller ID showed that it was his mother, and despite her earlier disgruntlement about him returning home a full day ahead of her and his father, he pressed talked.

"Hello?"

((Sam, you forgot your toothbrush. And your toothpaste. And don't say you'll just stop to buy another one, young man. You can't keep just up and taking off like you did this morning, it's not healthy. You have responsibilities.))

"Uh sorry, mom," he replied, momentarily stunned by a slap of the mundane. Dental hygiene was very low on his priority list right now. "Can you do me a favor, mom?"

((What is it?))

"Well, I've been kidnapped by a crazy blonde girl and I'm beginning to seriously think she might kill me."

((Sam, I really don't want to hear your jokes right now. You're grounded when we get home, you hear me?))

"Mom, I'm being serious," Sam protested, watching as Arad simultaneously flicked off a passing car and managed to avoid mowing down a motorcyclist in the lane ahead, probably due to some flaw in the laws of physics. "She's got this psychotic look in her eyes-"

((We're having a long talk when we get home, young man.))

"Mom. Mom, don't hang u-MOM!"

Staring at the phone, he realized that doom was more than likely inevitable.

"Great."

"I'm not going to kill you," Arad informed him evenly, her glare still on the road ahead, or to be specific, the cars that were still in her way. "Not on purpose anyways."

"And that makes me feel so much better."

"We're going to Colorado."

"Oh goody."

"We'll need to stop and get some supplies."

"Can't wait," Sam responded, having retreated into sarcasm, humanity's last natural defense. "Should I make a shopping list?"

To his surprise, she reached into the pocket of her lab coat and pulled out a pad of purple post-it notes. Handing it over, she retrieved a pen from somewhere in the middle console and gave it to him as well. It was apparent that she was taking this very seriously.

"Uh..."

"We'll need an aluminum baseball bat, a white sheet, some rope, fishing wire, and a one dollar prepaid calling card."

"Why?"

"We're going to kidnap an esteemed member of the military," she replied, eyes narrowing at the back end of the Nissan in front of them. "And it always pays to be prepared when contemplating actions that will make you a traitor to your country."

"Somehow I get the feeling that you planned this out a while back."

"Well, someone has to-"

The cell phone went off again, earning a sideways scowl from the glasses wearing girl and a look of apprehension from Sam. He flipped it on, answering hesitantly.

"Hello?"

((Sam, why the hell did Bee just call to tell me you'd been kidnapped if you're cell phone's still on?))

"Bee called you!?"

((He sounded really distressed, I think his voice box or whatever is broken again. He said that somebody named Arad is going to kill you. What's going on?))

"Well, it's kind of a long story," Sam started to say, wondering where to start. "Someone or something made a replica of the Allspark and..."

* * *

"...And now I'm apparently going to be helping kidnap someone in the military," Sam concluded, noting a passing sign that mentioned something about Oklahoma. "Which probably isn't going to be good for my health." 

((How is kidnapping someone going to help anything?))

"Apparently there's a secret Air Force project called 'Stargate' or whatever that's supposed to have something to do with aliens. Arad, and apparently Optimus too, thinks they have an Allspark replica."

((And that's why you're going to Colorado?))

"Yep."

((That's crazy Sam.))

"Welcome to my life, as of late," he muttered looking upwards at the roof of the cab. There was a skull embroidered in the clothe fabric covering the entire surface, with little red light bulbs wired into where the eyes were. "What else did Bee say?"

((That he told the twins to come pick me up while he heads after you, I think. There was someone else shouting at him over the link, something about why turn signals exist.))

"Twins?"

((New arrivals I guess, I didn't get to talk to them.))

"That must have been who Optimus was talking ab-"

"I hate to cut your conversation short, I really do," Arad interrupted, snatching the phone away from Sam with a bit more force than necessary. She paused mid-sentence, apparently to think about her own words. "Actually, no. I don't really. He'll call you back."

The last part was muttered into the phone before she abruptly clicked it shut and tossed it into the back seat of the cab. Grumbling, she pulled out her backpack and shoved it at Sam.

"There should be a bag of fireworks in there somewhere, get them out please."

"Fireworks?"

"We're going to need the flash bombs."

"Um," Sam said, opening the backpack and sticking his hand in. After a bit of rummaging, he managed to get his hands on a plastic bag, yanking it out only to find that it was twice the size of the backpack itself. Staring, he wondered if maybe there was a medicine cabinet stashed inside as well, and if said container had any aspirin. "Asking about this is going to give me a headache, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"We'll need a lighter."

"There's one in the glove box," Arad informed him, hands tightening on the steering wheel.

She glanced out the window at the side mirror, then at the speedometer as he fumbled with the compartment. Eventually he found a Zippo, unsurprisingly decorated with skulls, underneath several layers of registration papers.

"Now what?"

"Roll down the back window, light one, and through it at the left hand lane behind us."

"Dare I ask why?"

"We're being followed."

"Oh," Sam said, unbuckling his seatbelt and climbing into the back. The information sunk in as soon as he reached for the window controls, making him hesitate. "Followed by what, exactly."

"A 1959 Cadillac Superior Hearse."

"Is this some kind of Floridian thing, throwing flash bombs at hearses?"

"Are you insulting my heritage?"

"No."

"Damn, I could have cracked a couple good jokes if you were," she muttered under her breath, pressing her foot down on the gas pedal a little more. "Look, its kind of suspicious seeing a hearse following a pick-up at two in the morning down a two lane highway."

"Maybe he was working the late shift at the morgue."

"He's been following us since you started talking to your girlfriend."

"So what?" Sam asked, glancing fearfully out the back window. The headlights of the vehicle in question were too bright for him to make out the front end very clearly, let alone anything past the windshield. "You think it's a Decepticon?"

"Sure as hell not the Ghostbusters!"

"So, what's a flash bomb going to do!?"

"It'll freak him out."

"And?"

"Well, that's about it," Arad answered with a bit of a hesitant tone. "I don't normally carry the potent stuff in my bag; there are too many things in there that don't mix well with gunpowder."

"I'm pretty sure there are a lot of things that don't mix well with gunpowder," Sam informed her. "Me being one of them."

"Look, either you throw the damn thing at his hood or I slam on the brakes and he runs into us."

"You wouldn't!"

"Are you doubting my ability to back up my threats?"

"Fine, I'll throw it."

Muttering, Sam pulled one of the aforementioned incendiary devices from the bag, examining it for a moment before rolling down the window. Flicking open the Zippo, he lit the fuse and side tossed it in the general direction of the hearse before ducking down just in case she'd lied and they weren't flash bombs. Behind the truck, there was a flare of brilliant illumination that lasted several seconds, during which Arad floored it. Or, to be more precise, she pressed a button hidden beneath the dashboard that for various illegal reasons caused the truck to accelerate to speeds hitherto unachieved by such a massive vehicle. Sam was slammed back into the seat by the accompanying forces and only just managed to notice that Arad had turned off the headlights. The best response to this he could manage, was by screaming, as the likely hood of them running into something had just increase exponentially.

So he screamed.

* * *

"I think we go that way," Kate said, staring at the large unfolded roadmap she'd nicked from the visitor's center of a town some twenty miles back. She pointed at an erratic red line denoting the I40 junction with I30 in Little Rock, Arkansas. "It goes all the way to California." 

"But it does not run through Nevada, which is where we are supposed to be headed."

"I'm pretty sure there's probably a junction we can take to get to Nevada somewhere down the line."

"But is it the quickest route?" Sideswipe inquired, peering down at the crinkled paper with a frown on his metal face. "I think we should follow the other red line."

"Highway 65? Why?"

"According to 'Google Maps' it connects with Interstate Seventy in a place known as Marshall, Missouri and continues as far as Cove Fort, Utah. It passes through Colorado, so we can accompany Bumblebee and meet up with everyone else. And then we can take Interstate Fifteen north to Interstate Eighty in Salt Lake City. Why is it called that?"

"Because there's a salt water lake," Kate answered, frowning at the map. "Are you sure? I was kind of hoping to take Route 66."

"That would take us too far out of the way."

"Damn."

"Can we go now?" Sunstreaker asked impatiently, looking at the both of them with a very annoyed expression. "Before I rust."

"Too late there."

"Can it, you slagging-"

"If you two start again, I swear I'll strip your bumpers while you're sleeping!" Kate snapped, being rather grumpy at four in the morning. "Damn, you're like two-year-olds!"

"Nuh-uh," Sunstreaker protested, before pausing. "What's a two-year-old?"

"I think she just called us juvenile."

"What? Us!?"

"No, the other two handsome mechs standing over there," Sideswipe muttered sarcastically, waving a hand at an empty spot several meters away. "Who do you think she's talking about? Stupid gli-"

There was a crunch as Sunstreaker's fist hit his brother in what equated for the gut region, and within moments the two were wrestling on the ground throwing all manner of curse words into the air. Kate watched for a moment, but even the prospect of nonsensical violence was not enough to perk her up at this hour. Sighing, she turned to Bumblebee, who was looking rather embarrassed at the bickering twins.

"They're always like this, huh?"

He nodded slowly, wincing at the sound of several trees being broken in half.

"Any suggestions, or should I just make general threats with my DMK?"

Bumblebee appeared to think on this, tilting his head to the side and mimicking the pose of a famous sculpture. After a few minutes he seemed to perk up, antenna flicking upwards at a sudden idea.

_//Workin', at the car wash, workin' at the car wash, girl, come on and sing it with me//_

Kate stared, momentarily put off by the music but after a long moment in which several things collided in her brain, she smiled a sly smile.

"Ah, bribery, gotcha."

* * *

The phone rang from somewhere near Sam's elbow. He twisted around and picked it up, not bothering to look at the ID screen this time around. 

"Hello?" he said hoarsely, flinching at the pain in his throat. "Ugh, that hurt."

((Sam? Are you alright?))

"Honestly? I feel like someone took a cheese grater to my throat, I burned my hand lighting a flash bomb to escape a hearse that may or may not be a Decepticon, I probably have a concussion, and who am I talking to right now?"

((This is Ratchet. We received word from Bumblebee a while ago that Arad had abducted you. We had attempted to contact you, but your cell phone was in use at the time.))

"Oh, great."

((If you think you have a concussion, you should visit a medical center immediately.))

"I was exaggerating, Ratch," Sam muttered, climbing back into the front seat. One-handedly, he buckled the seatbelt and looked over at Arad, who had somehow managed to procure a can of cherry cola. "I'm okay, what about you guys? Are you in Colorado yet?"

((We will be crossing the state border within the next hour. Where are you?))

"Uh," he covered the phone and leaned towards Arad. "Where are we?"

"South-west corner of Kansas," she responded, taking a sip of her soda. She looked a little less pissed off than she had several hours earlier. "We can probably catch up with them provided they aren't using I-70."

Sam turned back to the phone.

"We're in Kansas. Are you on I -70?"

((Interstate Seventy? Yes, why?))

"Guess we'll meet you there then," Sam murmured, reaching forward to rifle through the glove compartment again. He found a road map and unfolded it, frowning as he traced several lines with his finger. "I think we're on highway 160-"

"US 50," Arad corrected, setting her soda can in the cup holder in the middle console. "And you're battery is dying."

"What?"

Sam looked at his phone and saw the little orange light of doom that usually indicated that any and all conversation would probably die off in the next five seconds.

"Ratchet, we'll see you in-Hello? Ratchet? Aw, damn it! Now he's going to think I passed out or something."

"You did pass out."

"I did?" Sam asked, blinking in surprise. "When?"

"About an hour ago, after hitting your head on the console."

"Damn, no wonder I've got a headache."

"There's some Tylenol in my bag," Arad informed him, nodding at the backpack lying discarded on the floor. "And Advil, some Aleve, and possibly some asthma medication if you happen to be having problems with your lungs."

"Medicine cabinet, right?"

"How'd you know that?"

"Just a hunch."


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer : **I do not own Transformers or Stargate. Arad, Kate, Tank, and Wrench own themselves.

**Reviews :**

he who pesters shoujax - How do you know your cars haven't already been stolen? Have you checked them lately. instigates paranoia Anyways, glad you like.

Armored Soul - I thank you for breaking the one hundred review mark, and also for reviewing every chapter. Makes me happy to see the story enjoyed so much.

Toshikuru 'Yume' Shonen - I'll be posting a picture of the infamous backpack (along with a list of its contents) on my DeviantArt page pretty soon, as it seems to be rather popular.

StarLightSeraph - Mmmm, candy... munch, crunch, munch

Bluebird Soaring - I like writing Sam being abused by insane-ness, it makes me giggle. Both Ratchet and Wrench are going to get some good scenes coming up soon.

FaeChild19 - The hearse will be back, I promise. And Arad's back is really becoming popular. Maybe it should have its own website...

StevDown - Nah, Arad doesn't know where Carter lives nor could she find out as easily as other people. Technically, she's kidnapping someone who is a former member of SG-1, because that's just the way my muses work. And there will be a scene in which Arad and Teal'c have a conversation. Probably about anime.

Fire From Above - Don't feel bad for Kate, feel bad for the twins as she has figured out their weakness.

Dark Predator Dragon - Tis alright, don't feel bad. And why is everyone ragging on Mitchell? He's not that clueless...

SomeReallyRandomPerson - Yet another fan of the backpack! Hurrah! Thank you for pointing out the typo. It should be fixed now, unless my browser is lying to me again.

P-chan13 - The ghostbuster reference was for Falco, out of spite. He didn't like the TF movie, thus I link him surreptitiously to the fandom by including his favorite franchise. Mwahaha, my evil plan is complete!

The Digital Artist - Do you really want to know the answer to that question?

blood shifter - Wow, that's the best compliment ever. is all smiley/giddy/happy now

AccessBlade - Hurrah, I have inspired someone. dances

**Note :** I apologize once more for the long delay between chapters. Work has been hectic due to the holidays, and my co-conspirator Kate-Chan is currently in New York. On a lighter note, anyone see the new TF series thingie on Cartoon Network? It made me have a giggle-fit at the adorability of Bee.

**The Darkside of the Sun**

Chapter Thirteen

Sam stared down at a rather large duffel bag filled with various cell phone chargers from a variety of different makes and models, attempting to find one that would work with his own long dead battery. He had long since given up contemplating how a duffel bag had managed to fit into the tiny black purse that Arad carried around, quite certain that the scientific explanation involved large words that would give him another headache. As of this moment, the only thing he wanted to focus on was getting his cell phone to work again, so that maybe, just maybe, he could be rescued from the increasingly crazed antics of the blonde scientist.

They were in a garage, which was filled with the typical things usually found in such places, like over-flowing toolboxes, a lawnmower, and dusty bicycles with cobwebs in the spokes. There was also a refrigerator, which he was currently using as something to lean back against since the only chair already had an occupant. Sam had briefly wondered why Arad had wanted to buy rope, only to learn about a half hour earlier several different techniques for tying someone up.

Apparently there were special knots for tying up people of military rank.

"You know, this really isn't how I pictured spending my weekend," commented the guy tied to the chair, whom Arad had explained was 'Brigadeer General Jack O'Neill' at some point after she hit the older man in the head with a frying pan that had been left out to dry in the kitchen. This had been improvisation, as they had not been able to find a cheap enough aluminum baseball bat. The General was now sporting a bruise and an annoyed expression that somehow found its way over to Sam. "Who are you?"

"I think I'm the other kidnapee," Sam replied, picking up one of the chargers and examining the plug. "But then again, she never tied me up."

"Because you always do what you're told," Arad called from the corner where she was inspecting the tool box. "For instance, if I gave you five bucks and demanded at you to run to the nearest store to buy me a twelve back of cherry coke, you'd do it."

"No I wouldn't."

Arad sighed, rolling her eyes before walking over a crinkly five dollar bill in hand. She held it out in front of Sam's face.

"Go get me a Cherry Coke."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"NOW!!"

"No!"

"SODA, NOW!!"

"Geez, fine," Sam grumbled, climbing to his feet and snatching the money away from her. He started towards the side door, then realized what had happened. "Damn it!"

"Too late now, go get me my soda."

He glared at her, then pushed the door open and left, shaking his head.

"Impressive," O'Neill remarked, as Arad grinned smugly. "Got any aspirin?"

* * *

Mikaela had packed a backpack full of supplies, certain that she would probably need them for this particular excursion. She was sitting on her front porch, attempting once more to call Sam's phone when the sight of not one, but two Lamborghinis turning down the grubby little street where she lived made her drop her own phone. They rolled to a stop in front of her house, but all she could do was sit frozen in wonderment at the sight.

"Holy shit."

"That's what I said," called a voice, snapping her back to reality. She saw that the Reventon had its window rolled down and a rather tan brunette girl was leaning out. "You are Mikaela, right?"

"Yes."

"And you will help in supplying car wash points if these two behave, correct?"

"Most definitely," Mikaela replied with a grin, evidently having been warned of the current arrangement by Bumblebee. She stood up from her seat on the porch with a calculated look of mischief in her eyes. "In fact, if they're real good, they'll get more than just a wash."

There was a pause as this was considered by the parties in question.

_She's talking about wax, isn't she?_

_Damn, how'd they ever guess our weakness?_

After a few moments, the yellow Murcielago popped open a door, indicating that this was to be Mikaela's ride. She grinned like the inherent car fanatic she was, grabbing up her bag and climbing inside. The door snapped shut smartly, before the car revved its engine and took off down the road, barely allowing her time to buckle her seatbelt.

"So," she said, as they reached the highway in record time. "Which one are you?"

"Sunstreaker."

"Sweet."

* * *

Sam returned with the requested bottle of cherry cola and, having decided that it was probably better to get on Arad's good side before things went completely to hell, a large purple bag of M&Ms. She acknowledged this by simply handing him the correct charger for his cell phone and a hand waved in the general direction of the nearest plug before turning back towards the captive.

"I will attempt to explain this in terms you will comprehend, kay?" Arad replied, tilting her head slightly to the left in order to accent the tacked on syllable that forced her words to require a question mark. O'Neill quirked an eyebrow. His current state was something between annoyed and losing circulation from the ropes that kept him tied to his chair, so he couldn't exactly disagree.

"Ok," he said slowly. He was beginning to regret his decision to have eggs instead of microwaved oatmeal for breakfast that morning. Taking a frying pan to the forehead was definitely not one of the finer highlights of his life.

Thus far anyways.

"Right," the crazy blonde girl murmured, pulling a rolled up piece of paper from the abyss that was her backpack. Out of the corner of his eye, O'Neill spotted something shiny and yellow rolling into the driveway through the window on the door. His attention, however, reverted back to Arad as she unfurled a large and rather badly drawn sketch of what appeared to be a giant robot. "This is Megatron. He's an evil bastard."

"Ugly too," O'Neill added without missing a beat.

"Wait a second, let me see that," Sam said, grabbing the paper away from Arad. He held it up and stared for a moment. "Holy crap, that's eerily accurate."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Odd," Arad muttered, rubbing her chin and glancing up at the ceiling with a thoughtful expression. "I just modeled it after EVA-ONE from Neon Genesis Evangelion."

"What?"

"It's an anime with giant robots in it."

"Oh."

Arad took the picture back from Sam and snapped it back into its previous rolled up position, then pulled a cord hanging from the ceiling. Down scrolled a white sheet that had, apparently, been turned into an impromptu and makeshift projector screen. The girl then scuttled to an appropriate distance behind O'Neill's seat and pulled a rather sleek looking projection device from the mouth of her bag. The general wasn't exactly sure how that was even possible and prior experience with scientific explanations prompted him not to ask. Once she was done setting it up, a bright light appeared on the screen and a grainy picture of what appeared to be the ruins of Mission City appeared, shattered glass included.

"About a month ago, Megabutt tried to get this thing called the 'AllSpark' and nearly destroyed Mission City in the process," Arad announced to the room, a handy dandy laser pointer dot appearing on the screen circling a portion significantly shinier than the rest. Despite the blurriness of the photograph, O'Neill could make out a shape that vaguely resembled the giant robot she'd shown before. The laser pointer abruptly disappeared only to be replaced with a remote control. Pictures of Mission City, the Hoover Dam, and an Iceberg flashed across the screen. "Kudos go to Sam-"

She nodded at the kid in question, who appeared to be trying to figure out something mathematically related judging by the frown on his face.

"-his friend Bumblebee-"

She nodded towards the window, where the face of an inquisitive looking and blatantly yellow robot was peering in. Upon seeing that O'Neill was looking his way, he waved two fingers in greeting.

"-and their friends for making sure things didn't get out of hand."

"Robots."

"Yes."

"That's a robot."

"Yes."

"A good robot?"

"Yes."

"All right, as long as we're on the same page," O'Neill murmured, swiveling around to look at Arad. It was a stroke of luck that the only chair available in the garage afforded the capability of three-hundred and sixty degree rotation. "He has friends?"

"They're called the Autobots," Sam volunteered, having stopped in his futile attempt to figure out Arad had managed to obtain pictures of Mission City. "They're aliens from the planet Cybertron."

"I got the whole 'alien' part already, thanks."

"Just trying to help."

"You could untie me."

"I think I'd rather not incur her wrath."

"Eh," O'Neill shrugged. "It was worth a try."

"Anyways," Arad said rather loudly, looking annoyed at having lost her audience, however briefly. "The AllSpark is this glowy cube looking thing that basically gives these guys life."

This time around, she pulled out what appeared to be a semi-cube shaped chunk of crayola model magic. It was glowing slightly due to the fact that it had been smothered with glow-in-the-dark paint. There were random symbols drawn on each side with permanent marker.

"It was destroyed in Mission City, the end."

There was a pause as Sam threw her his best you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me look.

"Just kidding."

"That wasn't funny," he informed her grumpily. "This is serious."

"You bought me candy, you should have realized by now it would have dire consequences."

"Could you get to the reason why we're here?"

"Please," added O'Neill, who was pretty certain one of his hands had fallen off. "I can't feel my fingers."

"Fine, geez," Arad grumbled , sticking out her bottom lip. "A couple days ago, my friend Kate and I were at MOSI going to see Spiderman Three on the big IMAX Screen when these two show up and distract us with stuff about signals and cube thingies."

She paused and glanced at Sam.

"Kate's probably going to demand twenty bucks from you, by the way. When she remembers about not getting to see the movie."

"What? Why!? It's not my fault you two have the combined attention span of a goldfish!"

Arad stared at him in shock.

"Wow, that was actually really clever," she informed him. "You get ten points!"

"Yippee."

"Uh, hello?" O'Neill cut in, glancing back and forth between the two. "Losing circulation here!"

"Okay, look. We thought the AllSpark was destroyed, but a few days ago the Autobots started picking up signals just like it all over the galaxy," Sam explained, much to Arad's annoyance. It was apparent that she'd had more props prepared. "One of them was in Florida, and we found what looked to be an exact replica of the AllSpark. And then another signal appears on Earth somewhere here in Colorado. Arad thinks it has something to do with a program called 'Stargate' which is why we're here."

"Is that all?"

"She also thinks the original AllSpark was stolen."

"Probably by a pan-dimensional entity suffering from acute kleptomania, kind of like a ninja version of Jesus on crack."

Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning around to see yet another bad illustration, this one of the Christian messiah in ninja garb.

"Arad?"

"Yes Sam?"

"Ninja Jesus on crack?"

Arad looked a little put off by this reception to her drawing, until the metaphorical light bulb appeared over her head. She pulled out a pencil and proceeded to fix the picture. After a minute of erasing, redrawing, and writing, she showed it off again. It was now labeled 'Zombie Ninja Jesus on crack' and included what appeared to be blood and brains scattered across the bottom of the frame.

"That's much better," O'Neill informed her, with slight sarcasm. "Can you untie me now?"

"Are you going to try and escape again?"

He glanced at the window, through which the yellow robot was still staring. The mech's antenna flicked up and down in a jovial manner upon seeing that attention was once again on him.

"Is his name really Bumblebee?"

* * *

There was an odd collection of vehicles sitting in the back parking lot belonging to a local collection of department stores. Some had collected several tickets already, due to being parked in a 'no parking' zone. This was beginning to annoy Ironhide, who had taken to grumbling at Wrench's fabulous idea to leave the only person, who could have been useful in their present situation, behind. This grumpiness extended to Tank by default, as the red pick-up 'just had to make sure' they wouldn't be followed.

_It was her idea in the first place, we should have brought her along._

_You just wanted to see if she'd be able to upgrade your cannons._ Tank texted back. _As if you need a-_

_Be quiet!_ Optimus cut in. _Sam's cell phone is back online!_

_Great._

_Shut up!_

There was a long pause as the phone rang and they waited for the other line to be picked up.

((Hello?))

The voice on the other end came out in a sing-song sort of way and was, decidedly, not Sam's.

"Arad?"

((You couldn't get in, could you?))

"No," Optimus replied wearily. "They turned us back at the gate."

((Thought so. Don't worry, I've managed to make friends with someone who's willing to help us, isn't that right, General?))

The last part was apparently spoken to someone else, and there was the sound of someone agreeing half-heartedly. By the tone and structure of the voice, Optimus could tell it was an older man who was probably not very amused at having to deal with the eccentric blonde.

"Why?"

((Well, I explained thi-))

She paused as someone, Sam most likely, protested.

((All right fine, Sam and I explained things and introduced Bumblebee, so General O'Neill is going to get his friends at the base to let us in.))

"I trust you didn't hurt him."

((No, well...not much...))

"What did you do?"

((I hit him with a frying pan, but the swelling's going down, I swear!

Optimus briefly ran an internet search to find out what a 'frying pan' was before continuing.

"Arad, please refrain from attacking anyone with cooking utensils from now on."

((Oh, alright.))

* * *

"Hey, Sunstreaker?"

"Yes?"

"Are there any more of you guys headed here?" Mikaela asked, staring out the window at the sky. "I mean, I know Optimus sent out that message and all, but did anyone else get it?"

"Last I heard, there's two others from our old group back on Cybertron headed this way."

"Really? Who?"

There was a pause and the crackle of static on the radio, and suddenly another voice was patched through. As the only other people in the immediate vicinity happened to be Sideswipe and his own passenger, Mikaela could only assume that they were all now speaking on something equivalent to speaker phone.

"I told you before, it's Arcee and Wheeljack," muttered the voice of the red Lamborghini. "They were the closest."

"Wow," murmured Kate's voice. She sounded amazed at the sudden switch to a conference call conversation. "That was random."

"If Wheeljack shows up, the Hatchet's going to have a fit," Sunstreaker commented, maneuvering around a slower vehicle despite the blatant double yellow line on the road marking a no passing zone. His brother followed suit, keeping on his tail. "But Arcee was on Ultra Magnus's squad, there's no way that signal was hers."

"Who are we talking about?" Mikaela asked, warily. "And why would Ratchet have a fit?"

"Wheeljack's an inventor. He tends to cause things to explode."

"Wow, that sounds like Arad," Kate remarked in a thoughtful tone. There was a sound of her drumming her fingers on the glove compartment. "Bet they'd get along great."

"From what you've told me of your friend, I am inclined to agree," Sideswipe said, although he sounded a bit annoyed. "Will you stop doing that!"

"Sorry. Are we there yet?"

"NO!! I told you that five minutes ago!!"


	14. Chapter 14

**

* * *

**

Disclaimer :

I do not own Transformers. All OCs own themselves, except for Tank, who's aft belongs to Arad.

**Note :** No, you're not imagining things. Yes, this is an update. You may now stop pinching yourself. I am not exactly happy with this chapter either, because of a multitude of things. First of all, I had this awesome thing written with Arad messing with Tank about getting revenge, but my home computer had to crash and take all my writings with it. I was so pissed off. And then this thing called real life decided to smash my face in for a while, what with preparing to leave for College, my boss changing my schedule on me every other week, and having to drive my younger sibling to tutoring. Second, I got writer's block for the longest time.

**The Dark Side of the Sun**

Chapter Fourteen

Ratchet had planned a lecture concerning the multitude of reasons why a frying pan should not be applied with force to a human skull and had launched into it the moment Arad was within hearing range. It was a good rant, filled with just enough anger and sarcasm that it should have prevented any sane individual from crossing the medic for a long time afterwards. Unfortunately, his audience happened to have a pre-invested interest in things of a scientific nature, so when the subject of human anatomy came up there were questions.

It was then decided that, maybe, just maybe, it wasn't such a good idea to mention the numerous ways a human could die on accident. There was something about that strange gleam in the blonde's eye that hinted that the line between 'accidental injury' and 'purposeful injury' was microscopically thin. So the CMO, cheated out of his lecture by that tricky thing called ethics, told her to go bother somebody else while he made sure that O'Neil didn't have anything worse than the large bruise on his forehead. She had then proceeded to where Tank and Ironhide were keeping watch, a slightly suspicious smirk on her face.

"I don't like it," Ratchet muttered, shaking his head as soon as the girl was out of audio range. They had met up outside of town, in a secluded area just off of a maintenance road near the highway, so there was little chance of being seen. "She's getting out of hand, Prime."

"I know," Optimus responded with a sigh. "Perhaps she will act better when Kate arrives with the Twins."

"I highly doubt it."

"Just how many of you are there?" O'Neill asked, now clutching an ice pack to his forehead. They looked down at where he was currently sitting, which happened to be on a large rock that may or may not have been a distant cousin to the one in Arad's front yard. Optimus had added further details to the explanation the skinny blonde had provided earlier, and, while the general had promised to at least get them an audience with the current head of the Stargate Program, he had advised that there might be some difficulty in getting government people to cooperate. Upon seeing the looks thrown his way, he gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Curiosity."

"There are eight of our kind currently on this planet," Optimus answered, kneeling down for a better look at the general. What little he could see of the bruise on the older human's forehead had turned a strangely disturbing mix of dark blue and green. It apparently wasn't something to be overly concerned about, considering Ratchet was no longer griping about broken capillaries and whatnot, but still, he found it disconcerting. "Are you sure you are alright?"

O'Neill took a moment to consider this, lifting the ice pack off to poke at his forehead, wincing only slightly. He then glanced up again, seeing what looked like an expression of deep concern. It was surprising and a little unnerving to see all the same ranges of emotions on a purely mechanical face, but it did serve as a reminder that they weren't just plain machines. He took a moment then to consider the question, recalling various instances in the past that had inflicted much more damage than a simple bruise.

Then he shrugged.

"Meh, I've had worse."

* * *

"Okay, you know what? Stop it!"

"Stop what?" Arad asked innocently from her perch on Ironhide's tailgate. The faux innocent expression she had pasted on her face would have been extremely convincing, but Sam knew better. He didn't know how she was doing it, especially since he was sitting on Bumblebee's hood and the golden Camaro was parked three spaces down from the massive black Topkick. All he knew was that he'd set the container down to take a sip of his soda only to pick it back up half empty.

"Stop stealing my fries!"

"How can I still your fries, you're way over there!"

"I had a full thing of fries like two seconds ago and now there's hardly any left!" Sam yelled across the rows at her, holding the fry container up so that it was clearly visible to both of them. "And you're the only other person here who can actually eat!"

"No, I'm not. There's the General."

"Arad, he's still over there talking to Ratchet and Optimus."

"Oh yeah."

The blonde put on a thoughtful expression as Sam examined his fries again.

There were now only three left.

"Okay, that's it! I don't know how you're doing it and I don't want to know how, but you owe me fries!"

"Didn't she pay for those anyways?" Wrench inquired, from his spot parked next to Bumblebee. Sam threw an annoyed expression at his windshield, but the Delorean kept on talking anyways. "I'm pretty sure she did, I mean, she was the one who spoke with the humans in the window and-"

"That's not the point!" Sam protested, crunching up the now empty fry container. "The point is, it was mutually agreed, before we even started eating, that those were my fries. And she just stole them! If she wanted fries she should have bought another order of them!"

"But I didn't want that many."

Sam smacked his palm against his forehead, the crumpled fry container crunched into an even denser ball in his other fist. And then he threw it, with surprising accuracy for something made out of oil-soaked cardboard. It managed to hit her leg, but ricocheted and hit Ironhide's bumper before coming to a rest on the grass.

"I HAD THREE!! THREE!! FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE BOX TOO!!"

"Isn't there a five hundred dollar fine for littering in this state?" Arad asked, not even caring in the slightest that she was being yelled at. She pushed her glasses into place with one finger, nose crinkling slightly as she looked at the crumpled box on the grass. "Or maybe that's just Florida..."

"Guys, a little help here."

"I'm not sure I agree with your assessment," Wrench volunteered, shifting slightly on his axles. "She did use her own monetary supplies to obtain both of your meals, therefore it should be her decision who gets the fries."

"Thanks, Wrench," Sam muttered with a sigh. "You're a real pal."

_Tough Luck, Tough Luck, Tough Luck, You have…Tough Luck, Tough Luck, Tough Luck, You have…_

"Damn, you too?"

_You're asking for my sympathy, I'm sorry for you my friend_

"That's it, I'm not sitting here anymore."

Sam went to grab his burger and hop off the hood, but the half-eaten double cheese had disappeared. He stared at the place where it had been, then turned to glare at Arad. She hadn't moved an inch, but there was a mustard stain on the left side of her mouth. Sighing, he walked around Wrench and Tank, picked up the crumpled fry carton and glared at her.

"Why?"

"I was hungry."

"You could've gotten more food while we were at the drive-thru!"

"Yeah, but sometimes I can't eat it all and I don't want it to go to waste," she whined, wiping the mustard off her face with the back of her hand. "You know there're starving kids in Africa and all that."

"There's a starving kid right here!"

"Really where?"

"ME!!" Sam snapped, waving his hands in the air. "Because YOU ate MY food!"

"Will you shut up about it?" Ironhide growled in annoyance. "And you! Get off my bumper!"

"I'm not on your bumper."

The tailgate promptly clicked loose and slammed down, knocking Arad onto the grass with a muffled thump.

"HEY!! That wasn't nice!"

"I'm not nice."

* * *

"Are we there yet?"

"FOR THE LAST TIME, NO!!"

"All right, all right," Kate muttered, slouching in her seat. "Don't need to shout."

"Well, you don't need to ask me every five seconds!"

"I though Lamborghinis were supposed to be fast cars."

"It's not my fault there's traffic!" Sideswipe snapped back, thoroughly annoyed. "Why the slag did we have to take this route anyways? Oh yeah, that's right. Because my brother's an idiot."

"Can it, glitch-head," Sunstreaker grumbled over the comm. "If we'd gone your route we would have encountered 'tolls'."

"If we had gone my route, we'd be there already."

"Oh, knock it off," Mikaela muttered, sounding just as irritated as Sideswipe. "There are only five more exits, we're not that far."

"How do you know that?"

"I've been paying attention to the road signs."

"There are road signs?"

She groaned at that, and Kate couldn't help but giggle.

"You mean to tell me, we've been driving for the past four hours and you guys haven't been paying attention to the road signs!? How the hell do you know where you are right now!?"

"Same way most of the other vehicles here do -- GPS," Sideswipe replied. He sounded as if, had he been in robot-form, he would have been shrugging. "Of course, ours is more advanced and pretty much automatic--"

He was cut off by several car horns sounding from somewhere ahead of them where a off-white jeep had just tried to cut across the lanes but was deterred by non-budging the far right side. There was some angry shouting out of windows, and from Kate's vantage point, one strategically well aimed finger. She noted that, somewhere farther ahead a few cars had pulled onto the side in order to cheat and cut ahead of the traffic line. This she felt, was probably a very dishonorable tactic, so she pointed it out to her current comrades.

"Sounds good to me," Sunstreaker said, revving his engine and turning off the side of the road. "You said five more exits, right?"

"Yes," Mikaela answered as they took off down the side of the roadway. The asphalt wasn't as smooth and a lot of the drivers they past threw them dirty looks, but at least now they were moving. Sideswipe drove after them, ignoring the angry horns blaring out but taking note of any curses thrown his way for future reference.

As they neared their appointed exit however, something made Kate look out the back window. She saw two specks on the horizon, growing larger at a substantial rate. It was all the warning they got before the roaring sound of dual jet engines ripped threw the air barely a few hundred feet above the freeway.

"HOLY SHIT!!"

"What the hell was that!?" Kate shouted, leaning forward to look out the windshield. In the sky, two fighter jets banked off to the right, roughly a mile or so ahead of where they were situated. "Those were Raptors but...Starscream got hit by lightning, he could barely fly so--"

"It's those fraggers, Skywarp and Thundercracker," Sunstreaker spat out, increasing his speed. Sideswipe followed suit and they hit the exit nearing one hundred ten and still rising. The yellow Murcielago took the curve with squealing tires, managing to look impressively awesome in the process of almost spinning out. Sideswipe went more carefully, mainly because Kate was yelling threats concerning the robotic equivalent of certain anatomical pieces. There was also the secondary reason of digging through his processors for a certain comm. frequencies. "HURRY UP!!"

"Shut up, Sunny! I'm trying to reach Optimus!"

"Well, tell him to hurry up too!"

* * *

There was an explosion of rather epic proportions, in that it was fiery, fairly large, and caused a lot of damage to things within a hundred foot radius of the blast zone. If there had been a seismograph present at the scene, it would have registered an abrupt collection of extremely zig-zaggy lines if it managed to survive upright and intact. It was followed by gunfire and much cursing by those who had been guarding the front gate, mainly because the gate house was now in two pieces, located in a tree and on someone's once brand new car. The broken black and yellow pieces of the gate itself were scattered across the pavement and there was a length of barbed wire topped chain link fence resting in a mangled pile somewhere in the bushes.

The source of this disturbance, if really such a word could be counted as an adjective for the current situation, was currently inspecting the crumpled remains of an air conditioning unit. Having arrived a few minutes earlier than he was supposed to, Blitz had taken a lot of people by surprise when he'd simply driven up on the wrong side of the road and plowed through two pedestrians and a stop sign. Some of the humans were still shooting at him, but they'd taken to calculating their aim instead of the panicked random fire that had occurred when he'd first transformed.

He'd been ignoring them, at least until the explosion drew his attention.

At first he thought one of the humans had fired at him with some primitive explosive projectile, but closer inspection and secondary explosion a few feet away led him to believe that this wasn't the case. The fact that the aim was extremely off decidedly limited the list of sources, and since Blitz knew exactly who was supposed to be in play right then, he was able to take a wild guess.

Grinning, he looked up.

"About time," he yelled up as one of the circling jets dropped down. Metal slid apart just in time to reveal a form similar enough to that of a certain other jet that some might've actually made the mistake of confusing the two. The grey-blue color scheme was a blatant give away, however, and even more subtly, the posture. Starscream usually stood straighter, head held high in that stupid arrogant way of his whereas Thundercracker tended to slouch a little more. He also had that resentful glare that seemed reserved just for Blitz. Apparently he had not forgotten the last time the orange mech had been assigned to the same task as him. "What?"

"Where's Starscream?"

"He got struck by lightning."

"What!?"

"No, really, he did."

"Where?"

Thundercracker's narrowed glare didn't even wander away from the smaller bot as he pulled out one of the smaller machine guns from subspace and fired it in the general direction of the humans that were still shooting.

"Eastern coast of this continent, in a state labeled 'Florida', you can't miss it."

"And Scythe?"

"On his way to this location, along with Barricade," Blitz answered, watching as Skywarp dropped in on the parking lot, smashing several cars in the process. A smaller two door car was kicked aside with unneccessary force. "So...you two gonna stay for the fun?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"How far up do you think I'd have to fly for one of these things to go splat by dropping them?" Skywarp asked, before Thundercracker could answer the question. The violet schemed jet was holding up one of the humans by its leg. It was screaming what Blitz recognized as being a string of explicatives in the language known as 'English'. "Fifty feet maybe?"

"Better double it."

"You sure?"

"Well, it says on the human information network that there have been freak occurrences of them surviving falls from higher up than that," Blitz admitted in a thoughtful tone, scratching at his chin. "Maybe two hundred feet? Just to be safe."

* * *

"You are so not going to believe this."

This statement was met with perplexed gazes, mainly because, despite the fact that alarms were blaring and the entire facility was shaking as if a sizeable earthquake had struck, Mitchell was grinning. It was the grin of someone who has just seen something that, in their opinion, was probably extremely cool, like that of a comic book nerd discovering the perfect super hero cosplay. He waved a hand at the nearest computer screen, which was apparently connected to the feeds from the security cameras that monitored the parking lot.

Right now they were showing that, contrary to what had been true earlier that morning, there was no longer a parking lot.

"Is that my car?" Daniel asked, leaning in to peer closer to the bottom corner of the monitor, which showed approximately half of what may have been a small sedan. "That is my car!"

"I don't think that's what we're supposed to be looking at," Carter said, tapping his shoulder and pointing at the middle of the screen. There, amidst the remains of several other vehicles, was, what appeared to be at first glance, a strange looking assembled stack of car parts.

It was only when it started to move and turn towards the camera itself that Daniel saw what it actually was.

"That's a robot."

"Yeah!"

"It destroyed my car."

"Yeah!"

"Why are you happy about this!?"


End file.
